Thursday, July 28, 2005

Are you growing up or just getting older?

I found a great article on maturity today. It asks the question posed in this blog title "are you growing up or just getting older" and then goes on to discuss symptoms of the emotionally mature and the emotionally immature.

I found it to be quite enlightening and I encourage you to read it as we journey together down this road. The most obvious fact from the article: just because you are older doesn't mean you are more mature than those younger than you.

In the end, it is our actions that determines our level of maturity.

Besides listing characteristics on emotional immaturity, it gives examples of emotional maturity and even how to develop it.

I leave you with one of the lists:

Characteristics of the Emotionally Mature

1. The Ability to Give and Receive Love
2. The Ability to Face Reality and Deal with it
3. Just as Interested in Giving as Receiving
4. The Capacity to Relate Positively to Life Experiences
5. The Ability to Learn from Experience
6. The Ability to Accept Frustration
When things don't go as anticipated the immature person stamps his feet, holds his breath, and bemoans his fate. The mature person considers using another approach or going another direction and moves on with his life.
7. The Ability to Handle Hostility Constructively
8. Relative Freedom from Tension Symptoms

We all have something to learn, it seems!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

BRAVO!!

Monty Loree said...

This is cool. I have to admit that I found your post when looking for people writing about emotional maturity.

I write about financial maturity. I believe that emotional maturity and financial maturity run hand in hand.

I am of the belief that America needs to develop a new financial maturity based on the mechanically credit driven society we currently live in.

This is a financial maturity that is drastically different from that of 100 or 200 years ago.

People aren't machines yet they're expected to act like machines in this credit driven world.

good post!