What You Should Know About Maturity

The dic­tio­nary defines matu­rity as “the state of being fully grown or devel­oped”, which I guess is tech­ni­cally right, but sounds like it has an ele­ment of wish in it: I know many peo­ple who are fully grown and are any­thing but fully developed.

But per­haps the dic­tio­nary is try­ing to be inspir­ing. Cer­tainly, it has syn­onyms for matu­rity that sound more real. For exam­ple, it lists words like com­ple­tion, cul­ti­va­tion, expe­ri­ence, full bloom (I like that one!), mel­low­ness, prime, wis­dom, and my favorite, “readiness”.

These def­i­n­i­tions are impor­tant for any­one who is rein­vent­ing, because the recog­ni­tion that a rein­ven­tion is needed is inevitably a sign of matu­rity.  Whether you’re 21 and rein­vent­ing to adult­hood,  in you’re 30’s and rein­vent­ing to a fam­ily, or 45–60 and rein­vent­ing to a more purpose-driven career or busi­ness, you’re exhibit­ing mature thinking.

Encore or boomer entre­pre­neurs gen­er­ally make a liv­ing by being mature. The wis­dom or expe­ri­ence that comes from matu­rity is usu­ally their chief asset, which is in turn employed by either a com­pany, or them­selves in a busi­ness. So  it’s prob­a­bly a good idea to under­stand what it means.

To that end, here’s my riff on maturity:

Matu­rity means you have learned lessons and rec­og­nize you will con­tinue to learn them. Life is a con­tin­ual, infor­mal school and you’re always at your desk. Some­times it’s more formal.

Matu­rity means con­stant growth and you can’t grow unless you screw up some­times. If  you’re mature, you under­stand that you will make mis­takes, that you will make cor­rec­tions, and that you will learn from the process.

Matu­rity means under­stand­ing that the most impor­tant time is the present. Yes, you have a past, and (it’s hoped) a future. But, while you may think about them,  you can’t live in the past or the future. The only time you can live is right now.

Matu­rity means under­stand­ing that cre­ativ­ity is as impor­tant as prag­ma­tism, and vice versa. Being purely cre­ative all the time is the func­tion of a child with­out respon­si­bil­i­ties. Being con­stantly prag­matic is dull and life­less. Even the most prag­matic dish needs a lit­tle cre­ative sauce to be palatable.

Matu­rity means rec­og­niz­ing that you should do all things in mod­er­a­tion. And that includes being mod­er­ate. Kick up your heels once in a while.

Matu­rity means under­stand­ing that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence. But some­times it is. You have to analyse and decide.

Matu­rity means a recog­ni­tion that what you make of your life is up to you. Yes, you may have been shaped when you were imma­ture by other, out­side, forces, but there comes a time when you make the choices.  The philoso­pher Albert Camus said it best: “Alas, after a cer­tain age, every man is respon­si­ble for his own face.” He meant women too.

Matu­rity means that if you love or hate some­one, that says more about you than them. You can’t love or hate some­thing about another per­son unless it reflects to you some­thing you love or hate about yourself.

Matu­rity means being less crit­i­cal and more under­stand­ing. We all have foibles, bad habits, and annoy­ing traits. Sure, we should try to change them, but some­times we can’t.