Grown-ups

I don't think I could really call myself a full Grown-up that could survive into my 50s, 60s, and beyond if possible until I was about 45 years old.

There are many reasons for this. The problem as I see it for most people is that you have to have enough fun in life to actually want to be alive. But, if you have the wrong kinds of fun you are going to be dead by 30 or 40. So, becoming an adult gives you the capacity to live a long life potentially.

What does an adult Grown-up look like? The primary quality that a grown-up has is the ability to mix business and pleasure. Too much business often kills someone by their late 30s or 40s. Too much pleasure does the same thing even younger. So, often it is this capacity to mix business and pleasure while also having the capacity to adapt to new situations as they arrive.

For example, I met people in the 1950s that were perfectly adapted to life in the 1930s, 1940s, and even 1950s. But when the late 1960s arrived many of them completely freaked out and soon died because they couldn't cope with changes as extreme to society that began to happen then.

Also, I suppose almost everyone could deal with the 1990s because that was the most peaceful time in the U.S. since the Great Depression. But, then 2001 and 9-11 hit and it was such an extreme change that many many people have died of all ages since 2001 both in the military but also people in all walks of life in the U.S. because of the confusion of these times.

So, possibly the biggest necessary quality to survive long term is the ability and will to adapt to literally anything that might happen in your life. If you don't have this quality then begin to create it within yourselves because you are going to need it to survive whatever comes next.