“Let us allow fortune to do her thing, and she will then give us the chance to do ours,” wrote Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) in his essay “That no man should be called happy until his death.” Montaigne is not telling us that human life is shaped by luck and that we should be happy with our circumstances. Neither is he implying that we are all doomed to a short, miserable life in which countermeasures are pointless because death is awaiting us at the end of the path. I regard the following twin essays by Montaigne as the most philosophical he wrote. Their titles are “That no man should be called happy until his death” and “That men shall not judge of our happiness before our death.” I called them “twin essays” because they convey the same idea from a slightly different perspective. The former adopts an objective perspective, and the latter, a subjective. They are also referring to the same historical anecdotes. What’s the lesson Montaigne is presenting in those essays? I can summarise it in one sentence. Montaigne is telling us that personal growth requires constant action and reaction. It’s not a plateau that, once attained, remains permanently stable. Happiness is directly dependent on personal growth, which is a combination of luck and hard work. Luck will turn bad at times, but hard work should remain constant because it is the best countermeasure to errors, opposition, and setbacks. Montaigne calls it unrealistic to regard happiness as a stable, permanent plateau. Personal growth is a lifetime mission, not a temporary project. We should remind ourselves frequently of the fact that even extremely successful people can have their achievements and happiness destroyed by bad luck. That’s why Montaigne views personal growth as a process of action and reaction. In the above-mentioned twin essays, he mentions Polycrates of Samos (6th century BC) as an example. After having attained the highest political position in Samos, Polycrates’ life seemed perfectly happy and stable. However, good luck turned into bad luck, wiping out every positive element in Polycrates’ life. After he was betrayed, one calamity led to the next, and eventually, to his death. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/michel-de-montaignes-advice-on-personal-growth/

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