How To Keep Growing Up

The business of growing up is something we normally think comes to a close when we get to 18 or so - and finally turn into those fully finished products; Adults.

Up until then, our growth is a subject of quite a lot of collective fascination. Twentieth century psychology beginning with the work of Swiss clinician Jean Piaget, pioneered an approach to child development that meticulously identified and labeled every principal stage an average infant go through on the developmental journey of its earliest years.

During this time, caregivers(parents, uncles, grandparents etc) are concerned about the inner and emotional development of the child. However after 18 thereabouts, this shifts to external, material matters. They begin to track what our university degree class is, what job we may secure and how we would progress in the corporate world. Growing up becomes synonymous with getting ahead .

Yet, in truth, we never stop having opportunities to grow in an emotional - rather than material or physical way. We may look more or less the same, but inside, slow and unheralded moments of emotional growth can be going on. Unfortunately, we don’t have a clear and detailed stages to measure ourselves against to give us the encouragement that we on the right path. Yet every adult life has the potential to acquire new emotional skills as significant as a child learning to ride a bicycle.

To develop emotionally involves a range of steps: learning to understand and sympathize with oneself; to take a proper stock of our childhood influences; to interpret others beyond what they have said directly to us; to recognize the hard edges of reality without being destroyed by them; to be genuinely happy for our friends when they get something we want; to achieve a necessary degree of confidence and to despair without giving up on our whole existence.

When we achieve some of these milestones, no matter how small they are, we should celebrate ourselves. We should be proud of how gradually we are growing.

Despite misleading external signs, we aren’t ever done with the tricky business of becoming that hugely important thing: an emotionally matured person.

Kindly share with your friends and comment what you think are some ways we can emotionally grow up.

Have an awesome weekend ahead folks ❤️🥳

INSPIRATION [SCHOOL OF LIFE]