“The best human attribute is rising after every downfall,” wrote Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Like no other author before the Renaissance, Montaigne devoted two decades of his life to identifying the keys to personal growth, and recording them in his essays.
The above citation is taken from Montaigne’s essay “That no man should be called happy until his death,” which is one of my favourites. However, his recommendations on personal growth can be found in every essay he wrote.
Montaigne regarded writing as an exercise in thinking. His goal was to figure out the answers to important questions, and write down his thought processes. He began his essays with the formulation of a question, and then presented the arguments in great detail, either in favour or against of a particular answer.
For Montaigne, writing means exploration. Personal growth was his principal subject because it was his primary concern. I view Montaigne as the most results-oriented author of his time because of his relentless search. He wanted to identify the truth and would not be happy with anything else.
Reading Montaigne’s essays requires a couple of weeks, but his recommendations about personal growth are repetitive. I’m going to summarise them here for those who lack the patience or the energy to read all of Montaigne’s essays.
Montaigne’s approach to personal growth
First and foremost, Montaigne was keen on finding practical answers. He regarded general recommendations as worthless. I can tell myself “be happy” or “be healthy” a hundred times per day, but those statements are too vague to prompt any specific action.
The essay “That it’s folly to measure truth and error by our own capacity” gives a salient example of Montaigne’s penchant for practical action based on observation.
Montaigne recounts in this essay that Alexander the Great, when he was still a boy, wanted to tame a wild horse named Bucephalus. So far, everybody had failed because Bucephalus was too nervous, too aggressive.
Alexander wanted to tame Bucephalus, but all experienced riders had failed. The standard approach to horse taming does not work in this case, thought Alexander, but a solution can be found through observation.
For the next days, Alexander did just one thing: he watched Bucephalus. He was looking for the exact cause of the issue, so that he could then identify a practical solution.
Through observation, Alexander discovered the reason for Bucephalus’ nervousness and aggressiveness: Bucephalus was afraid of his shadow.
The discovery of the problem’s cause enabled Alexander to figure out a practical solution. He simply turned Bucephalus towards the sun, so that it was blinded. In this way, Bucephalus couldn’t see his shadow and its nervousness disappeared. That’s how Alexander became able to ride it.
Montaigne employs the story of Alexander and a wild horse to drive home a key lesson about personal growth, namely, that practical solutions become easy to find after a problem’s cause has been identified.
Montaigne: exploration and personal growth
However, problem-solution patterns do not always apply to personal growth. Montaigne knew that people can sometimes feel unhappy with their lives without being able to name the precise cause. The reason for their dissatisfaction might be so diffused that it becomes almost impossible to figure out. What should one do in those cases?
Montaigne provides the answer in his essay “On educating children.” He tells us that the philosopher Socrates, when he had already reached an advanced age, started to learn to dance.
What was the point of Socrates taking dance lessons at an age where most people steer away from demanding exercise? I find this example compelling precisely because Socrates wasn’t known to be unhappy.
Socrates had decided to take lessons in a new field because he viewed learning as the best path to personal growth. I don’t know if he became a good dancer, but that’s irrelevant for our purposes.
The lesson to be retained is that exploration and learning are crucial for personal growth. They constitute the best antidotes against stagnation, defeatism and decay. Montaigne draws this wise conclusion from Socrates’ anecdote.
What else does Montaigne recommend to accelerate one’s personal growth? He tells us to assess situations calmly, and if they look promising, go ahead and take some risks. He gives as example Julius Caesar and his decision to cross the Rubicon.
After assessing the risks, Julius Caesar had concluded that the odds were in his favour. Although he was risking his career and his life, two major elements were playing to his advantage. I am referring to his great reputation and to the fact that he was leading a vast army of experienced soldiers.
Montaigne: risk taking and personal growth
Montaigne encourages us to take careful risks to accelerate our personal growth. That’s the opposite of endless waiting and doing nothing.
I must underline that Montaigne is asking readers to look before they jump. He is asking us to assess the risks carefully in order to establish if the odds are in our favour. He is not recommending us to trudge forward blindly, regardless of the consequences.
The last thing one wants to do is to go ahead without having studied the situation. King Pyrrhus did so, inspired by his blind ambition. He engaged wars for conquering new lands, only to discover later that those victories had proven too expensive.
Finally, Montaigne tells us to proceed step by step. Personal growth is a path that can be walked only one day at a time. It’s pointless to try to accomplish vast projects in just a few days.
Montaigne tells us that, when the Roman general Quintus Sertorius wanted to tame a wild horse, he always did it little by little. Instead of rushing things by employing brute force, he gained the horse’s trust little by little, one day at a time.
“I study myself more than I study any other subject,” wrote Montaigne in his essay “On practice.” Indeed, self-knowledge plays a key role in personal growth, but we should complement it with motivation, exploration, and reason.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice, I recommend you my book titled “Sequentiality: The amazing power of finding the right sequence of steps.”