It’s amazing to me the number of things that pop in when your mind gets quiet or is otherwise occupied. That’s when the creative part of us I refer to as The Grasshopper goes to work.

Yesterday, when I was totally engaged in a project, The Grasshopper sauntered in and offered this: “Aging is insured; maturity is optional.”

Every day we get a little older but not necessarily wiser. Best as I can tell, maturity is wising up.

We’ve all been exposed to the notion that history repeats itself. What might not be as apparent is that we can stop that trend by wising up.

What is wising up? For me, it’s noticing and correcting behavior that’s not working. I don’t know about you, but I still have a lot of wising up to do.

I don’t think I’ll ever notice all the behaviors and probably will correct even fewer of them, but I find that it’s in the pursuit of correction that I find the reward.

You find out a lot about yourself and gain maturity when you go to work on a behavior that’s not working. You won’t have to look very hard to find one. They’re like dog poop – they’re everywhere.

Reminds me of a story . . . I met this man a while back whose babbling would make brooks jealous. He rambled on and on about whatever was on his mind, never noticing that he was making everyone within earshot disappear. He never noticed that no one was listening and that he had a hard time getting through. This fellow is quite accomplished and very knowledgeable but he would benefit greatly by wising up to his immature behavior of throwing up on people and not noticing.

He will age and continue to prattle and his life will continue to be a communications battle . . . unless he notices. Then and only then will he have the opportunity to mature.

What’s not working for you? If you don’t know, summon the courage to ask someone close to you; they do.

Once you get past the denial that you don’t do that, you can go to work on that behavior. Notice it every time it comes up and interrupt it. The interruption puts you at the crossroads of change. The more often you interrupt it, the more mature you get.

In closing, the words of George Bernard Shaw come to mind: “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.”

All the best,

John