Mature people take responsibility for their actions. If you find yourself scowling through your days, finding fault wherever you look, or unable to crack your foul mood, then consider the source. It’s unlikely that everything, everyone, everywhere really is awful.

Maybe you need to take a good look at what age you’re stuck in. When you grow up, even a little, you accept more responsibility for making your life look the way you want it to.

Ask yourself who you want to be, then audition for the part.

Aim to be mature beyond your years. Practice acting like the person you wish you could become. Pick a role model – from real life, a book, or a movie – who’s breath-takingly brilliant at doing what you wish you could do and try to channel them when you need to, even if the idea of doing so makes you feel a bit silly.

Master yourself. Measure maturity by response ability.

Incompetent fools and cads abound – no doubt. Resist the temptation to join them, to take the bait, or even to teach them a lesson. Responsibility – response ability – requires clarity about what stuff belongs to the cads and what stuff belongs to you. When you let them be, you let yourself become. You turn the focus inward and grow yourself up.

Don’t act your age. Age your act.

{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }

Flickr photo: Climbing?, by ktylerconk

Related reading: Pep Talk | Ditch the Chasm, Interview | Carrie McCarthy

There’s that moment in which you do the wrong thing because it feels good. And then there are all the moments afterwards when you remember what you did. Yuck.

There’s that moment in which you do the right thing, even though it hurts. And then there are all the moments afterwards when you benefit from what you did. Much better.

Do the right thing. Even if it hurts. Feel better afterwards.

You know what the right thing is. Don’t try to convince either of us otherwise. This is not a debate about how to identify the right thing. We’re past that. This is about dominance.

Your feelings can scare you. Just don’t let them stop you.

This is about ranting and cursing while you exercise, if that’s what it takes to make it to the shower and the do-right smugness. The smugness is what you’ll remember tomorrow. It’ll take some of the fire out of the cursing when you exercise again. As the smugness accumulates, the feelings will get with the program.

To eliminate negative feelings, act in spite of them. Get smug.

{ PEP TALKS deliver a bracing blast of Grace }

Flickr photo: I’ll take endless showers, by lepiaf.geo.

Related reading: Pep Talk | Chin Up, How to Mingle at a Party | Tips for the Timid