I didn’t want to accept the reality of my circumstances because I hadn’t figured out the reasons for them. The fact is that I may never fully comprehend the reasons for certain events, people, things, and circumstances in my life. Nevertheless, I have an obligation to myself to accept the reality in which I live and act accordingly.

It can be helpful to look at past experiences for information about ourselves and our past relationships. A lot can be learned from memories, inventories, reasoning things out with others, and analyzing past behavior.

After taking an inventory of some of my past behaviors I realized that some of the things I did were extremely immature – which made me ask myself what exactly mature behavior entails. Exploring this question helped me identify some of my as I seek to change my sometimes infantile behavior.

To me, maturity includes:

  • knowing myself
  • asking for help when I need it
  • admitting when I’m wrong
  • making amends with people I have hurt in the past
  • forgiving myself as well as those who have harmed me
  • being completely honest with myself and others
  • accepting from others, even if I’m having a tough time loving myself
  • recognizing that I always have choices
  • taking responsibility for the choices I make and accept the consequences – good or bad
  • seeing that life is a blessing and to stop contemplating or attempting suicide when things aren’t going well… even when it seems as if the world is crashing down around me.
  • having an opinion without insisting that others share it
  • having respect for myself
  • loving myself as is, without placing all these impossible to achieve conditions upon myself
  • recognizing my shortcomings without dwelling on them
  • recognizing my strengths
  • accepting that I am human and allowed to make mistakes
  • acknowledging that my needs are my responsibility, but to allow others to help fulfill those needs.
  • setting
  • not discarding my boundaries out of , , or pressure
  • accepting that people may become angry or hurt if I say no, but how they feel is not my responsibility
  • caring for people without having to take care of them or make excuses for their behavior
  • refraining from trying to control others
  • accepting that it is impossible to be perfect
  • accepting that I’ll always be a in progress