We often talk about whether a person is "mature enough" or "has enough depth," but what exactly does it mean to be "mature" or "have depth"? This is a rather difficult question to evaluate, because maturity and depth can only be understood intuitively and cannot be measured with digital indicators like height or weight. However, from the most basic interpersonal relationships and healthy attitudes towards dealing with matters, to whether one can make correct decisions, all of these are related to one's level of maturity. Therefore, how to measure a person's (including oneself) level of maturity is an important matter. For this, we believe that at least four aspects can be used for evaluation.
1. Single-faceted vs Multi-faceted
During a person's growth process, when considering surrounding matters, they usually start by focusing on just one thing, then gradually progress to being able to handle multiple things simultaneously. Many people have seen such phenomena: a child at the dining table reaches out to grab food further away and often unintentionally knocks over a cup closer to them. The reason for this is that when the child wants to reach across the cup to grab the food, their mind is only focused on the dish they want to grab, ignoring the existence of the cup, thus easily knocking it over. As the child grows older, they gradually learn to pay attention to two or three different things at the same time, and the occurrence of such incidents decreases accordingly.
In the cultivation of work abilities, similar situations are also common. Some people always tend to think in single points; when considering something, they often only notice one aspect and cannot take into account related surrounding matters, making the quality of their thinking and decision-making quite low, missing many things. A mature, experienced person will consider various related matters as a whole, for example, thinking about what kind of chain reactions other related matters might produce if handled in a certain way; or if adjustments are made in another part, how it could improve the overall effect, etc. By considering multiple different aspects simultaneously, the quality of judgments and decisions will be better. If a person can take into account more aspects at the same time, we can say that this person is more mature and has deeper experience.
2. Tangible vs Intangible
When people judge the value of external things, they can only further recognize its value after first becoming aware of its existence. Some things are tangible; as long as you see or hear them, you become aware of their existence. But intangible things cannot be seen or heard; they can only be perceived through "imagination." If a person can only use their eyes and ears to become aware of the existence of things and cannot perceive them through imagination or appreciation, they will not be able to recognize the value possessed by intangible things. However, the value that intangible things can produce is always greater than tangible things. Therefore, a person moving from only seeing tangible value to recognizing the existence of intangible value reflects their level of maturity and depth.
For example, for ordinary people, the salary obtained from employment is tangible, while the learning and growth environment at work is intangible. A good learning environment can bring greater growth to personal abilities and better performance, leading to higher achievements, so its value far exceeds tangible salary. But many people, when choosing a job, do not see these intangible values and often make decisions based solely on slight differences in current salaries. More mature people, however, are more likely to recognize the importance of the learning environment and choose a good environment to seek greater intangible value.
3. Short-term vs Long-term
Between cultivation and harvest, there is usually the issue of time length involved. Some things yield returns quickly after investment, but their benefits last for a relatively short period. After the effects wear off, reinvestment is required to generate more benefits. On the other hand, some things require long-term cultivation, and may not show obvious results in the short term, but their benefits continue to ferment over a long period. The longer the time, the greater the amplification factor of the benefits, and the overall effectiveness will therefore be hundreds of times greater than short-term benefits.
But the ability to immediately recover after investment looks quite tempting on the surface, and many people are attracted to it. Therefore, in thinking and decision-making, they tend to focus on immediate short-term benefits, failing to value or lack patience for long-term cultivation, resulting in what is known as "short-sightedness." A mature person, however, can endure the lack of short-term benefits and chooses long-term cultivation, pursuing long-term benefits. When we say someone "has foresight," this is what we mean. Therefore, we can measure a person's level of maturity by observing whether their judgment and decision-making tends to pursue only short-term benefits or understands the pursuit of long-term benefits.
4. Relative vs Absolute
Almost all things in the world can be said to be relative, not absolute. For example, good and bad are the results of relative comparisons. When we say something is "good," it means "relatively good compared to another thing," not "absolutely good." In other words, the distinction between good and bad is not a clear-cut 100-point versus 0-point division. "Good" could mean 70 points of goodness or 90 points of goodness; "bad" could mean 59 points of badness or 20 points of badness.
But an immature person tends to judge things from an absolute perspective, using only an absolute dichotomy of "good" and "bad." In such a situation, due to the lack of relative comparison standards, they cannot distinguish between true good and bad, nor do they know how good is good or how bad is bad. A mature person, on the other hand, knows how to view things with a relative logic and has more precise judgment capabilities.
In summary, when judging a person's level of maturity, we can observe their behavior and see whether they frequently take into account multiple aspects when thinking and deciding on matters, whether they can see intangible value, whether they focus on long-term benefits, and whether their judgments use relative logic. Thus, whether a person's maturity is sufficient and their depth profound depends on how deeply they understand these matters and how firmly they form habits around them.