Three Maturity Injections for your 20s
Rule #2: Feet on the Ground, Head in the Skies. But Feet on the Ground First.
Today, in this modern exhibition, I speak from the youth booth and stall, with a rather unfavorable looking syringe at hand — Maturity.
At first, the word ‘Maturing’ might make us cringe. We prefer passion and the quixotic. Maturity seems like the muttering elderly uncle standing opposed to us, blocking our path, asking us young flames to “fall back in line”; And we despise him even more now yelling:
Why Maturity? When we have our youth!
Hold on.
What if I tell you (And what if you already know):
That Maturity, real sturdy, maturity may be the key to a more genuine and lasting youth.
At this, we’re reminded of masters like Johann Von Goethe, who seemed to have maintained an unusual level spiritedness, energy, passion, curiosity, and drive up to the very ending moment of their lives.
Yes, my friend. There are such people. We need that key which makes youth and our highest aspirations sustainable — not merely momentary. Sustainable.
If you’re on the same question looking for answers, Let’s swim through one neglected solution: Maturity
For which we take three quick injections from her syringe.
1st Injection: Anti Self-obsession
Key: You are not the center of the world. You are barely the center of anything.
Humility. The more we avoid this facet, the lesser chance we have of actualizing anything great. Why?
Because we are ineffective, stupid, and outright ignorant when we crown ourselves king over reality.
And reality is always, always, far more overwhelming and challenging than what our juiciest fantasies depict — our castles in the air.
To build your colosseum, you’ll need to work with that frustrating contractor, the lazy draftsmen, a bureaucratic government that won’t give you the land permits easily. Which means you simply don’t get to work the way you want to, all the time. Things don’t work according to you, rather you need to work according to things, to reality; And we can’t do that if we hold ourselves the center of the universe.
We need to be a student first, at the feet of our teacher — reality. Whatever your “fantastic” ideas are would, in the end, be tested against him — the one who sanctions our work. He is the center of everything, while we orbit around him. Why?
Because we don’t know shit. We have a lot to learn, and you don’t learn by occupying the center.
2nd Injection: Anti-Grandeur
Key: Feet on the ground, head in the skies. But feet on the ground first.
We’re abundantly exposed to “big things” on media. Big achievements (Elon Musk launching his new rocket), big awards, big companies, and big people. Our standards latch onto that while forgetting something fundamental to our real paths:
The small, simple, everyday steps are not easy. They are not ‘meh’.
Calling a client, attending to your family, solving those seemingly small problems is not easy. At all.
This tends to smash and undermine our youthful quixotic tendencies, who’re looking forward to the “big”. The reason being: Now, we are on the ground. And we need to learn and build ourselves from the ground up. Growth does not begin in the skies (The ones that do are called fantasies).
Elon Musk is able to launch rockets into the sky today because he started out building a web software company in his early years — on the ground. Any grand aspiration came as an outcome of tilling and harvesting first a modest patch of land.
3rd Injection: Anti-Romanticism
Key: Romance and passion are not the heroes of your movie
Ask experienced artists and they will vouch for this, no matter what:
All romantic juices and vapors and intoxicating intuitions, at a certain (often initial) stage of any project, disappear and fade away. The sentimental spark evaporates to the shock of all amateurs, which leaves them wondering:
“What happened — Do I not love this anymore?”
“Where is my motivation gone? This is scary!”
But if, our real work begins only after that evaporation?
“The first step is an intuition — and comes with a burst — then difficulties arise.” — Thomas Edison
The amateur depends on the romantic flame and is led by it. He starts out pumped up, wild, jumping, talking, leaping only to lose all charge a month later, leaving a string of unfinished projects and commitments.
The antidote to this, are the professionals, the mature anti-romantics who know that that flame of feelings is not for guidance. It’s good for a tickle and joy, but it is not be depended on. They know this.
Thus the professional, when all romantic flame has extinguished, is left with something more enduring in attitude:
The classical attitude. Where purpose and disciple reign.
Probably we’ve got maturity and growing up all wrong. We tend to believe they shatter our dreams and pull us “back to the line”, i.e to the average and mediocre. Whereas, on the contrary maturity could be the thing that’ll enable our aspirations, and make them a reality, on the ground.
Because imagination and inspiration — the quintessential adolescent stage — when disconnected from reality is, well, a waste. Which is where we need maturity. Not merely because it is expected of us — screw that. But because we need it to build anything great on the ground.
On the ground.
