The seeking of self is an ongoing journey. It is something you do your entire life. As you travel throughout your existence, you will notice a change in who you were and who you are now if you think upon it.
To me though, the greatest change comes when you realize that how you are at a particular moment is not who you want to be. This is something I know all deal with for it is placed in books and into movies. True most times when you come to this point are not so action filled to be worth turning in a movie. That does not diminish their import.
A key element to me is honor. I do not mean “honor” as a noun, but as a verb. The one that means: to observe, adhere to, be true to.
To observe the laws that govern you, be they the laws of the land or of your believes.
To adhere to them and follow them, no matter how minor or how great.
To be true to yourself and others.
To me placing others before myself. That is more gratifying, more satisfying then only seeking to please my own desires and wants. Most of the time I have gotten to the point where placing others first is simply a natural reflex then a conscious act.
A prime example: my work ethic. What I do can literally kill someone if I do not give my best effort. To do my job there are rules I must follow. If I do not follow these rules, the worst might happen. Many I work with do not have this work ethic, most are younger than me.
Why are the younger people less caring about the rules and or laws you may ask? To me it is due the removal of the fundamental rights, which I and those my age grew up being taught. My generation was the generation of the child of the war; be that the World War of the Korean War. Our fathers for the most part were men that had truly witnessed the horrors of war. So they instilled into their children the need to follow the laws, be they the laws of the land of the simply the ten commandments of the Bible. The latter of which was simply reduced to the saying: “Do unto others as you would have other do unto you.”

Now the horrors of war are upon us once again. May returning home missing limbs, many with brain damage, even more with emotional damage. Will this make them instill into their children the need to follow the rules? I can only hope. For at this time we are in a generation that has never truly experienced these horrors. In fact many of been desensitized to these very horrors through movies and televisions show that show extreme violence.
To a degree I was desensitized to it was well. Then one day I had a “brilliant” idea. I would watch the killing of one of the hostages that were being taken by Muslim extremists. I quickly become aware of the horrors of war that day as the dull knife was used to slowly cut the man’s head from his body. I could not even finish watching. I became unable for months after that to look at blood without wanting to vomit. Something I had never experienced before in my life.
This was another building block, which has helped to form the person that writes these thoughts down now. Was it a good one? NO!
Because there has been no ongoing or horrific war, the minds of people have become complacent. They allow other people to determine how they should think instead of doing the thinking themselves.
A prime example of this was Germany in the nineteen-thirties. People in the Germany that existed at that time had suffered through famine and privation due to world war one. Yet it was not these that were pursued by the Nazi party. It was the youth, but because many within the populous felt the surrender in nineteen-eighteen was unjust and unfair they too listened. Their minds were pliable to seeking what was better for the select, especially since those, which were not the select, contributed in their eyes to the suffering they had suffered in the past.
The cycle is repeating itself here in the United States. You have groups that were downtrodden in the past, but are now given the ability to prosper and yet they do not. They are taught from within and without that, it is due to others they are still failures. They are given gifts from the government that in turn keeps them downtrodden. Yet it is those that are prospering that are villains? To me, though, it is these government systems that are the problem and keeping them denigrated.
This country was formed under the promise that ALL are equal. Admittedly, it took too long for this to become the truth, but once it did, actions were taken to allow those that had been downtrodden to make something of themselves and many have.
Now though these rules are being used to make those it was meant to help and rise, into people that wish to dominate. Making themselves better than those, they see as the ones that oppressed them. The problem with that is that most that did this are dead. Those alive today had little to do with the oppression or were not even born. This is wrong to hold someone accountable for something they did not do.
Now as an example what occurred to those Americans of Japanese descent. These people were given a onetime monetary reward by the government for their treatment during World War II. That is how it should be done. A onetime recompense of money and then it is up to those that were affect to go from there. The continued dishing out of money to the point of making people depended upon the government is one of the ultimate wrongs that can happen.
The United States government was never meant to be as large as it is today. As it is stated in the Tenth Amendment in the Constitutions’ Bill of Rights:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”

The main power is to be kept to the States and if not the states the people, not the government. Today though, the government is guilty of taking the tenth amendment away from the people. Those that are career politician or career government employees need to be removed from office and in some cases even jailed for their actions.
Enough of the rant.
The main topic is growing to a complete person. Most would simply call it maturing. However, using the word “maturing” is not accurate. I now several people in their forties and fifties that are nowhere near being called mature. Then there are people in their teens I would call mature.
To me it is those that seek understanding in all things are the ones that seem to grow.
Those that reach a point that makes them comfortable; or allows themselves to live in a lifestyle that allows them to act in ways that are not correct; these are “immature and selfish.”
Therefore, we as the human race are encouraged to grow mentally, to seek out knowledge, to seek understanding of others so that we can grow. When someone or some group says not to do this, but to listen to them and only them for they have all the answers. Those that listen surrender their very worth has a member of the human race to be nothing more than a witless pawn that has no understanding or desire to know what is happening in the world about them. They become willing slaves to the mantra of thoughtlessness.
I encourage you to seek out knowledge, but make it a balanced knowledge. Understand the laws of land. Understand the rules of your believes within your respective faiths. See how the two are meant to work together. If you find they are not, then follow that which allows you to grow, not that which diminishes you. For if it lessens you as a human being do you truly deserve to be call a member of the human race?