www.ismaili.net

What Is Maturity

What is maturity ? Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction. Maturity is patience. It is the willingness to pass up immediate pleasure in favor of the long-term gain. Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging set-backs. Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat, without complaint or collapse. Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, "I was wrong." And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, "I told you so."

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.

Maturity means dependability, keeping one's word, coming through in a crisis. The immature are masters of the alibi. They are the confused and the disorganized. Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business, and good intentions that somehow never materialize.

Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed -- and the wisdom to know the difference.

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it, and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

-Ann Landers

How about personality!

"Personality can never develop unless the individual chooses his own way, consciously and with moral deliberation."

-Carl G. Jung (1875-1961)

There comes a time when we must grow up. Age dictates a lot of what goes on with us physically. Society says when we are "legally" adults. But our personalities can emerge at any time. As we learn, we are gathering tools which will hopefully bring us to spiritual maturity, where we understand who we are, and what we have to share with the world.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.


* Bible -- I Corinthians 13:11

Betty wrote:How about personality!

"Personality can never develop unless the individual chooses his own way, consciously and with moral deliberation."

-Carl G. Jung (1875-1961)

There comes a time when we must grow up. Age dictates a lot of what goes on with us physically. Society says when we are "legally" adults. But our personalities can emerge at any time. As we learn, we are gathering tools which will hopefully bring us to spiritual maturity, where we understand who we are, and what we have to share with the world.

And to add that:


personality

"We do not accept ourselves for what we are, we retreat from our real selves, and then we erect a personality to bridge the gap."

-Susan Sontag, 1963

In this case, the word "personality" is being used like the word "ego." It is important for us to understand that we are more than the roles we play. Sometimes we lose ourselves in these roles, we identify with our "doing" rather than our "being."