A person must grow at their own pace just as the wick of a candle burns in it's own time. "Forced growth" creates instability. Just as slow growth creates a strong, interesting and beautiful wood, so also does naturally paced growth create a well rounded human.
Growth is essential for vitality otherwise one simply composts in place. The stagnant feed on their own ideas born of long gone by circumstances. Failure to grow, to adapt, leaves a person with voids in their life, emptiness that is often placated from the outside world rather than addressed. When an event arises beyond one's adaptibility they instead cope, leaving the circumstance ensconced in pain like a knot in a tree where it has experienced trauma, preventing its essence from flowing freely.