50 Ways To Be Mature

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.