As I’m only 21, these are about as close as I can get to explaining some broad characteristics of maturity.
Please add your own thoughts as a comment, even if it is along the same lines of something I have already mentioned.
To get a little bit closer to being mature, take a look at the following 50 attributes and see if you can readily apply any of them.
- Eat healthy.
- Obtain adequate sleep.
- Exercise frequently.
- Get tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
- Use contraceptives.
- Keep abreast of world affairs, whether you like it or not.
- Be able to say no.
- Put wrappers in the garbage instead of down the side of the couch.
- Always go only 1-6 mph over the speed limit, even if there isn’t a policeman in sight.
- Don’t be racist. Period.
- Wash your jeans even though they “aren’t dirty.”
- Do as you say you will, every single time.
- Don’t get married until you have lived with your fiancee, first. (If for whatever reason you can’t do this, at least accept a prolonged engagement.) Then, do so for no other reason but tax purposes. (OK, ok, LOVE, too
) - Be early, but not too early.
- Read something worthwhile every day.
- Motivate yourself.
- Ask others for help when you need it.
- Know when to hush.
- Praise others for their hard work, diligence, and even luck.
- Start to save for retirement before you get your first wrinkle.
- Change plans when necessary.
- Don’t mock another culture until you’ve lived in it. After that, play ball.
- Pursue positive habits.
- Moderate or eliminate drug use.
- Refuse to be negatively influenced.
- Be courteous, but true to yourself.
- Keep going, even when it hurts.
- Understand many different beliefs before choosing your own.
- Leave religion and politics at home.
- Place the happiness of children and the elderly above your own.
- Don’t be afraid to try your best and fail.
- Understand the difference between a want and a need.
- Delay gratification when necessary.
- Thank those who mean something to you.
- Concede that toilet paper doesn’t care whether it is installed upside down.
- Apologize, even when it hurts to admit you were wrong. (In fact, in most cases, apologize even if you weren’t wrong.)
- Forgive, even when you were mistreated - not for the offender, but for yourself.
- Share what you can.
- Care for those who need it.
- Laugh every day.
- If you support a war and are of the age and physical condition to participate, you have a moral obligation to do so.
- Expect ten times more from yourself and ten times less from others.
- Know that a person’s occupation, however prestigious or menial, does not determine their worth as a human being.
- Know that if something isn’t broken, unlike the old axiom you need to get it looked at anyway because by the time it breaks it will be too late.
- Realize that life is a series of ups and downs; a few rainy days do not mean the end of contentment forever.
- Have insurance for every aspect of your insurable life.
- Have a detailed will.
- Vote.
- Treat people not the way YOU want to be treated, rather, treat people the way they SHOULD be treated.
- Die knowing that you have made at least one other human being’s life a little bit better.
