Maturity

​I remember as a teen getting more responsibility. At the onset, I thought I was the man and was becoming a mature adult because I had more requirements. But after many mess-ups, I recognized more responsibility required more work and brought more stress. I was having severe issues with what I had been given to do. I reflected on a quote that said, "Maturity is accepting responsibility for your actions, being accountable for your results, and taking ownership of your mistakes." Success in our lives will only come from properly handling our responsibilities. Here are some tips to help us stand up to our commitments.
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3 Tips

1. Cope – Learning to cope and deal with problems instead of blowing up, fighting, or giving up is a step to being responsibly mature. Life will bring frustrations and disappointments, but an undeterred commitment calls for a precise focus on accomplishing the goal in spite of obstacles and challenges. Wes Craven said it this way, "A lot of life is dealing with our curses and dealing with the cards we were given that aren't so nice. Will it make us into a monster, can we temper it in some way or will we accept it and go in some other direction?" How we cope with the stress of our lives determines the level of responsibility we can handle.

Work to be optimistic about every situation, good or bad. Allow them to empower and motivate you to achieve your goals. Don't visualize yourself as a helpless victim who can't change the circumstances. Instead, work to improve your situations at all costs from all angles. Don't give up! Always believe that there is a way through the mess. Step back, take a deep breath, and keep swinging at your responsibility. Maturity holds the hope of success in view.

2. Respond – Responding correctly and following through with our commitments is a sign of being responsibly mature. It's easy to point the finger and find fault in the other person to avoid our responsibilities. But just because we want to shift the blame to someone else doesn't make the problem go away. A mature person looks to solve the problem when it falls in their lap. They accept the responsibility to get the job done no matter who's the blame.

Owning up to responsibilities will require you to avoid vague excuses and playing the blame game. Think through your choices or decisions before you respond to them. Value your words and your commitments. Allow your responses to reflect mature responsibility.

3. Humble – Recently, I was in a meeting where one of the key elements discussed was how achieving success requires us to think differently about our everyday struggles. For example: To be on top, we must lift others, to lead, we must follow, and to impact others we must serve. Ken Blanchard said it best, "Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less." A key to being responsibly mature is staying humble.

Real responsibility is more than "getting YOU to the top," it's about getting your whole team or others that are around you to the next level too. Being humble is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of being responsible.

Summary –   The level of your success is connected to the level of your responsibility. Learn to be more responsible by coping with the tough issues, responding correctly to the call of duty, and being humble when severing others. You are at the center of being responsibly mature.

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