The playfulness that some adults enjoy is always termed child-like, but it isn’t immature at all. It is seen when innocence reaches the other side, intact. It is the natural cognitive reward of Self-made Man shining through unimpeded, with its proper results: a sense of joyous lightness, that no problem is too great, that the main point is to enjoy the process of living, that the essential requirements of existence have been met and we have earned the right to vent and revel in the sheer pleasure of being. To rediscover and reintegrate the openness of youth is a blessing to the true definition of maturity.
The Self-made typically wait to have little ones, because what they needed to learn from them, they havelearned. All the traits we love children for, can be preserved or brought back to our own character. Of the four elements of cognition, only adults practice three and four (creative action and result) in regard to their ultimate purpose, yet we all retain a fundamental respect for one and two—perception and identification. It was our own derivation, which we blissfully share with the newcomers. Cognitive discipline is a key to maturity and an essential element of integrity. It is infinitely more fulfilling to exercise the entire process than to be sheltered halfway. We the adults, have moved on to a confident, creative response to our natural world—our productive effort—and have secured its sound result: life, and the boundless satisfaction we can achieve. We know what’s in store for kids and we know it’s built on the adventure they are experiencing now. We must display the balance of cognition in order for them to acquire it. The feeling that life canflow, that human beings canremain pure, that dreams canbe reached—is the view of life Self-made Man passes on by example—through sound, educated decisions, by adhering to a sensible, proven standard of morality and in the countless endeavors he enjoys across the span of his existence. A mature animal has mastered the living functions of the entity which it is.
We are the dominant species due to our vast capacity of volition; the freedom of moral choice. Our pinnacle of maturity, the point of full blossom and the moral destination for Man, is found here. Full Volitional Maturityis defined as exercising the full range of responsibility offered by our capacity of choice. The result is that we automatize intellectual and behavioral patterns that foster a continuous progression. Organized to efficiently pursue Man’s natural affinities—to live in accordance with, not in contradiction to, one’s nature—reveals the dynamic lifestyle we were meant to achieve: a lifelong seamless integration of pleasant, productive physical motion, driven by a calm, guilt-free, active mind. It is his glory that Self-made Man chose to face existence in this way as an ideal state. His reward as master over himself is the zenith of spiritual nourishment.
See how it flows? From the beginning, the elements of cognition—wide open senses, emotionally disciplined identification and integration, creative action and validation—were all necessary to get this far. First, Self-made Man develops conviction in the correct process of cognition, through its proven ability to result in physical and spiritual bounty—the achievement of self-sustenance and happiness.Second, with the power to think and define life-furthering values firmly in place, he is able to question all the premises Man ever created, to revalidate what works and throw out what doesn’t—the virtue of metaphysical honesty.The control of others over him is wiped out; the majority of his stress dissipates, and third, sovereign as a result, he is free to pursue true integrity. He weeds out any self-hampering ideas or behaviors in order to get his life flowing in the trouble-free direction nature intended—the perfection of existential consonance.His sophistication soars as his virtues blend into a pattern of lifelong advancement, where all of his human attributes are properly utilized—full volitional maturity.Intransigence adds the weight of experience—watching sound principles in action and winning—rooting out personal flaws to assure his practice matches the actual concepts, and tenaciously closing this gap. He reaches full conviction; not just agreeing with concepts, but knowing, through personal validation over time. A word on convictions: 1) A convictionis what one knows beyond all doubt. 2) What one knows is made possible onlyby a rational process of validation. 3) A rational process of validation requires the cognitive integration of sensory data which is formed into concepts that are provable through rigorous trials generating consistent results (obtained by isolating the elements of a context to measure a specific variable (which science calls control groups)), finally to be brought without contradiction, into the total sum of one’s knowledge.