• Skip to main content

Mario M. Montreal

Writer & podcast host of "#MONTREALISM: Unexpected Explorations On How Loners Can Create Thriving Social Lives — Starting From Scratch"

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
Probably The Most Underused Tool In The World—To Improve Clarity, Certainty, Creativity, Confidence… And Some More

Probably The Most Underused Tool In The World—To Improve Clarity, Certainty, Creativity, Confidence… And Some More

#MONTREALISM by Mario M. Montreal on January 21, 2021 |3 minutes

THIS IS ABOUT “PROBABLY the most underused tool in the world.” If you want to improve your clarity, your certainty, your creativity and your confidence (and some more), then this article is for you.

(Hint: It’s not what you think it is.)

It’s…drum roll:

Your brain.

More specifically, the lost art of self-reflection.

Bummer.

I know, you may have expected some incredibly deep philosophy, or a crazy whacky tactic.

While articles on self-reflection can be quite deep and philosophical, I want to keep it on a surface level for today. Reason why is I hate it when people promise you a mystical way to improve your life, and then all they basically do is puking a 10,000+ word article in your face (and hoping you buy their woo-woo product or coaching eventually). Not enjoyable.

Here’s the quick answer:

What I like to do (and has helped me tremendously over the past few years) is this.

1.) I do one thing every day.

2.) I do one thing every Sunday.

That’s it.

End of story.

Just kidding.

1.) Every day:

I review my one-page Meaningful Life Daily Reminder sheet. Yeah, I created and named it this way back in 2015. Still thinking of a better name… here’s the main thing, though:

It works for me.

It’s a one-page document that includes the most important parts of my life: My values, my strengths, the skills I want to master, my purpose/mission, which emotions I want to feel on a consistent basis.

At the moment, I’m also working with Brendon Burchard’s “High Performance Planner.” It has a clear structure, is easy-to-use.

I also set up several reminders throughout the day to be more self-aware. This, in turn, helps me self-reflect my actions. Over the years, I’ve developed myself into a man I’m proud of. Not where I finally want to be, but on the right path.

Last but not least, I meditate whenever I feel I need to calm myself down or when switching from one task to a completely unrelated task (such as replying to email, after finishing writing an article like this one). After the meditation and before starting the new task, I sometimes ask myself questions like I do every Sunday.

2.) Every Sunday:

I review my actions. What did I set out I’d do? Have I followed through? If so, great! If not, why didn’t I? What can I do better next time? What did I learn?

I try to keep myself out of the picture; only judging my actions, not myself as a person.

By the time of this writing, I’ve written a weekly email to my mentor for over a year now. We’re at weekly review #67 now. While he’s not responding to each email, it helps me hold myself accountable. He does answer most of time, though.

Which is another important point:

Getting constructive feedback is priceless. Most people these days don’t want to tell you the truth. They sugarcoat things, too afraid to upset you or make you feel angry at them. I highly encourage you to seek out people who are brutally honest with you. I met several in my life time, and they are good friends too.

–Mario M. Montreal

Share
Tweet
Share
Pin
Email

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mario M. Montreal is the podcast host of #MONTREALISM, where he provides perceptive guidance to help you turn your social life around. He is also the creator of... learn more →

  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • PODCAST
  • TERMS & PRIVACY POLICY
  • DISCLAIMER
  • CONTACT

© 2014–2021 Mario M. Montreal. All Rights Reserved.

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By using our website, you agree to the use of cookies in accordance with the cookie policy. Learn more.

Mario M. Montreal
Your Privacy

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for our sites to function or to enable our affiliate program, and cannot be switched off in our systems. They do not store any personally-identifiable information.

These cookies are set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services (e.g., submitting a site URL into your browser, clicking an affiliate link to one of our marketing landing pages).

They ensure the proper technical functioning of such service (e.g., carrying out necessary transmissions over the internet, ensuring proper attribution to affiliates who have referred you, showing a website version that has a broadband-related data quantity corresponding to that of your Internet connection, changing from http to https as appropriate, etc.).

More Information on Affiliate Program Cookies: Where you have landed on one of our pages due to a link provided by our trusted affiliates, a cookie is set by our referral marketing provider as necessary for the affiliate to get credit for referring you and for you to get any bonuses or rewards that the affiliate may have offered you for following their referral link.

If you do not allow these cookies (e.g., through browser settings), some parts of the site will not work.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
The same goes with Facebook Pixel

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Cookie Policy

More information about our Cookie Policy