A Vital Concept of Personal Growth

Examines ways an individual grows and gains maturity as well as the ability to better control all parts of oneself to fulfill one's destiny. During the formative years of human life, most of the vital energies of man are directed toward the building and integrating of the bodily structure. Physical growth, therefore, is the orderly unfoldment of the powers, functions, and form of the individual from infancy through childhood and adolescence, and toward ultimate biological maturity. We all observe the phenomenon of growth, and accept it as the normal and natural way by which the state of adulthood is finally attained. The symbolism is so familiar that we accept it without due consideration for its larger implications of meaning. We may go so far as to accept growth as an end in itself, and overlook the more important fact that it is a conspiracy of means toward an end which fully justifies those means. We observe also that during those long years of transition between childhood and maturity, the growing person is under a sequence of pressures. We recognize, therefore, that children require guidance, patience, and understanding. They are adjusting to an unfamiliar way of life, and are learning to use those potentials with which the race has been endowed. The parent takes comfort in that his boys and girls will come finally to the full control of their powers and resources, and will then be able to unfold their careers and plan their personal destinies with a measure of confidence. In olden days, there was quite a ceremony when a son or daughter reached majority. It was customary for the elders to accept a new member into the circle of adults. There was talk of new opportunity and also of greater responsibility. The time had come to plan for career and family, to depart from childish ways, and share the burdens of society.