Formations of a Thought
A couple of years ago I came up with a pseudo formula for an idea on maturity, education, job security, and income. There comes a point in most people's lives when they reach the maximum level of income in relation to their education and age. And yes, age does play a factor in things.
You see, this theory dictates that age and maturity are pretty intermingled. As a result, when you combine the two and realize that part of maturity is education and that education is a combination of real education (schooling) and applied education (experiences) the outcome is that you can grow and mature in many different ways. For a minority of people that growth comes through advanced formal education in colleges and universities.
The outcome of a formal education is an increased potential for income. There are variables where this does not work: desire, location, and more. But for the most part, the outcome is the more education you have, the better your earning potentials are.
As my intent is to write professionally, and I plan to partially complete this by gaining more education (MFA-writing) as well as teaching others to write both exposition and creative. Within the field (writing) most authors become successful in their thirties. Some exceptions can exist; but for most people, they will spend their twenties attempting to hone and, in small ways, improve and perfect their writing skills. This is an extension to maturity.
In this sense, maturity consists of experience, education, and age.
Age is an important tool when determining what the capabilities of an individual are. The younger someone is, the less likely that person is to handle a lot of responsibility and the more likely it is for that same individual to believe they can do more than they are able. As you grow older, the inverse of this becomes true as the individual becomes more likely to handle more responsibility and less willing to accept opportunities to deal with more information or new responsibilities. Some people develop the ability to continue accepting information and responsibility, as they grow older; while on the other hand, some people refuse both when they are young.
One element of youth is the belief that they can do anything and, frequently, that they know more than they really do. Experience has a negative impact to knowledge in that it relegates those who are older into a category where they have to realize and identify they know less and less in the overall schema. There is no coincidence that many of the greatest movements in theoretical thought came when the theorists were young: Darwin, Newton, Nash, Einstein, and more. In some cases, these decisions caused the untimely death of the individual.
Science isn't the only arena where achievements were made when young. The Beatles, but most especially John Lenin and Paul McCartney, wrote much of the greatest musical works of the 20th century. Authors often write their best works on their first published novels and often when they are (relatively) young. Beethoven, Mozart, and many other classical musicians wrote their greatest works when they were young. As the artist grows older, though, the creative juices don't stop flowing, they are more focused; though that artist is less likely to experiment and push the envelope of their chosen field.
People are truly creative for a short period of time. Once that time elapses, though their innate ability is not lessened, their level of unique creativity is used up and they no longer push the fields they are in. The investment, monetarily, in youth allows the individual to increase his our her wealth over the long run; and in some cases, wealth is derived from at a much younger age; however, a required investment in ones youth is necessary to receive benefits and rewards in the autumn and winter of life.
Repeat performances of past work, or becoming a workhorse producer, does not negate the investment; it does however suggest that the individual has found a niche and is manipulating it. Scientists, mathematicians, musicians, artists, writers, and more all create great works when they were young and then spend the rest of their lives working through what made them famous, what set them on their path, either in the hopes of repeating success or advancing that success forward.
Success in not limited to the young. Those who spend their lives pursuing a certain kind of success will find it, though that success is often muted. In its muted form, recognition often comes in the twilight of the individual's life or after death. However, the outcome is not so much that the individual has not found some form of perfection, he or she is merely striving to define that perfection in some form or another.
The nature of the growth curve is that you allow yourself to pursue your dreams, remain steadfast in your designs and desires, and move forward in a path that allows you to eventually accomplish something. Regardless of the obstacles, eventually, if the individual is actually persistent in the actual goal, success will follow. In some cases, this success will be monetary, in other cases, success only comes in the form of doing what you set out to do. Success is quantifiable only in the sense that you can see the outcome of your labors.
In the theoretical sense, success is an element of improving, aging, gaining experience, and asserting that experience within a strictly defined area of life.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West
Real Heroes Fly