Eating to excess is immature. Abusing nicotine and alcohol is immature. Overspending is immature. Paying late fees is immature. Doing uninspired work is immature. Settling for weak performance is immature. Having a cluttered home or workspace is immature.
Embracing one’s maturity can seem like something to avoid. Will it be less fun? Will your childhood somehow be lost?
In the long run, embracing maturity makes life much easier. It’s easier to maintain good physical health than to deal with the consequences of poor health. It’s easier to enjoy financial abundance than to deal with the consequences of scarcity. It’s easier to work hard and go to bed feeling proud of your performance than to deal with the consequences of laziness and procrastination. It’s easier to work at a neat desk and live in a clean home than to deal with the stress of clutter. It’s easier to see a bright future ahead of you than a dim one.
It’s easier to deal with the consequences of maturity than it is to deal with the consequences of immaturity.
Thought patterns are like the route you take to-and-from someplace on a regular basis. You can practically traverse them without much conscious thought. You may even travel that route when you meant to go somewhere else because you are so used to taking that route.
We realized today that we are thinking about binge drinking and eating all the time and inevitably bringing it into our universe. We must stop the thoughts in order to stop the behavior. What you think about, you bring about. We have enough self-discipline to deny ourselves for periods of time, but that can only last so long. We have to eliminate detrimental thought patterns from our world altogether.
Today, we take a new route. When thoughts of behaviors that we know we don’t want to give in to enter our minds, we say, “maturity, power, and grace,” because those are the behaviors we do want to exhibit.
[Duration: 00:02:59 | recorded 7.20.10 ]