Growing Up is one of the main naturally occurring processes of life. A fascinating thing about it is that ‘growing old’ never stops, but ‘personal growth’ does. The difference lies between the choice: It's our decision in case of personal growth. However, we are given no choice when it comes to growing old. Change is inevitable but personal growth is a choice. Growing up, or ‘maturing’, as they say, can be quite intimidating if we are not guided well enough by the people who have already reached that stage of ‘maturity’.
We are taught multiple things, warned about what to stay away from, instilled with morals which shape and mould us into who we grow up to be, which unyokes us from the rest whilst growing up. Our parents are the ones most responsible for the way we turn out to be when we are older, as we spent the most time with them growing up. However, as we grow older we tend to go our own ways and live life on our own terms. That is when we begin to face the “real world” and we learn to deal with our own struggles and battle our own challenges. When things begin to get raw and real, that is often the point in life where people give up or label it as “settling in”.
However, the ones who do succeed in life are the ones who hustle through the pain until they thrive and reach the stage of life where they have finally achieved the state of euphoria. Your largest fear carries your greatest growth and I believe stepping out of our comfort zone is where the greatest foundation of growth lies. No one ever said that growing up would be easy, the ones who make it easy for themselves are the ones who simply escape growth and settle for the bare minimum. We can never become what we aspire to be by remaining where we are. We can remain when we are and grow old but never attain growth by continuing to be there.
We do not have control over growing old but we do have control over the scope of our personal development. Therefore, incredible changes happen in our lives when we decide to take control over what we have instead of craving control over what we don’t.
Growing Up v/s Growing Old
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