Maturity has nothing to do with getting older. Maturity is simply more time spent on a task or topic, deeper experience and understanding, more depth.
Immature means not ready, untested, unprepared for the contingencies. We all start there, but no one has to stay there. Understanding only the surface, if that, keeps one immature. And the immature make rash decisions. They find it hard to achieve the quality that they want. And it is often very difficult to get things done.
When your skills, your understanding, become mature, you will find that although the work may still be difficult, that you make fewer mistakes, start down fewer blind alleys, and that your results are almost uniformly of the quality you seek.
More than that, you can relax. There’s work to do, but you know how to do it. There are problems to solve, but you’ve solved problems like them before. And if the problems are new, they are interesting, not frightening.
No matter what your task, if you find that you have difficulty getting it done, if the pressures are building, then you may need to seek greater maturity. Learn more about your task, your discipline. If you want to write, learn more about writing. Practice writing more. If you’re a wood worker, study techniques, practice on scraps. If you’re a programmer, build little functions, test them, and compare your results to existing models.
When you hesitate, feel pressure, that’s an indicator that you don’t yet have the maturity that you need. After you finish the task at hand, step back and see if you can learn more about your task or activity. That’s the first sign of maturity. The next step towards maturity and mastery is the dawning recognition that you don’t really know what you’re doing, you don’t understand the fundamental issues, and the recognition that you can grow, learn, and change.
And as you practice and perfect your skills, deepen your understanding, I believe you’ll also find that you’ll begin to relax, to enjoy the process, the work. Maturity is a surprising state, something that you can’t anticipate when you’re fresh to a new task or skill. True maturity offers something you might not have known would come with practice, hard work, failure and mistakes.
It’s called happiness. The price is high, but the value is beyond measure. But you’ll only receive it when you mature.
Copyright © 2011 - All Rights Reserved
{ 0 comments… add one now }