“Act your age and not your shoe size” is a saying you hear quite often in southern states. This is basically a polite way of telling someone to stop acting like a child and grow up because in most cases children have small shoe sizes. Sounds a bit cliché, but we can see the overall perception. The question for today is simple; at what age is one considered too old to be immature? Now, let’s breakdown the meaning of immature in this sense. Immature, in this sense, is an adult who lacks the ability to mind their own business, lacks the ability to carry themselves as an adult even when it’s easier to act as a child, lacks the ability to understand that as an adult you may not always get what you want, or lacks the motivation to work for what they want.

At your job, is there this one employee that feels the need to continuously say what they feel versus thinking it in their minds? What about messiness in the workplace or organization? How about in the store when someone is on their mobile device speaking as if they don’t have an inside voice? Maybe you have witnessed an adult tantrum? The list goes on and on; but in this sense, the word “immature” can mean a lot of things that a “child” would not understand.

You also commonly hear people say “I pay my own bills so I am grown.” Not so much. Although paying bills is definitely part of being an adult, it is not the only element of a mature adult. Not only does a mature adult pay their own bills but they govern themselves as an adult at all times. This leads into the saying, “There’s a time and place for everything,” which a mature adult understands thoroughly. Let’s use our previous examples. Is it “mature” for an adult that is an employee of any organization to walk around saying and doing anything they feel? What does that do to the morale of the team? Who is truly responsible for putting a halt to it? Should someone even have to put a halt to something like that in a corporate environment or should each employee understand how one should act within a corporation? Is it “mature” for someone to be in a store having an entire conversation at a “party” voice level? Two different situations but one solution. For the second example, some may say that it starts within the home. That may very well be true for an actual child but isn’t it correct that us as adults are the ones that are supposed to be doing the teaching in the homes?

Restraint, determination, and motivation are some key factors that is needed to “act your age and not your shoe size”. How? You have to be able to restrain yourself from responding to comments or unprofessional actions of others. Next, you need to be determined to succeed despite obstacles and determined to be better than you were the day prior. Lastly, you need to be able to self-motivate. In this world some people will say and do things to try to tear you down, you have to be able to motivate yourself to keep pushing through wins and losses. Probably one of the best motivational saying is “you win some and you lose some but you live to fight another day”. Keeping that in the back of your mind can help you more than you know. Keep focused, keep active, and keep up the SLAY!