Ten Top Ways to Turn Your Brain to Mush

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How do you know if you are turning your brain into …

• You watch television at the national average. (I’ve been guilty of this one)

• • On 21 September 2006, Nielsen Media Research, Inc. revealed the latest statistics about America’s TV habit. Americans now watch an average of 4 hours 35 minutes of TV every day. This is up three minutes from last year. Furthermore, a TV is playing in the average American household for 8 hours and 14 minutes every day. That is also another record.

• Your diet consists mainly of carbohydrates, especially sugar

  • One hundred and fifty-six pounds. That’s how much added sugar Americans consume each year on a per capita basis, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Imagine it: 31 five-pound bags for each of us.

• Your exercise program consists mainly of remote control curls

  • See average television viewing

• You rigidly follow a Republican agenda.

• You rigidly follow a Democratic agenda.

• The last book you read was Catcher in the Rye in high school

  • Employers now rank reading and writing as top deficiencies in new hires.
    • 38% of employers find high school graduates “deficient” in reading comprehension,
    while 63% rate this basic skill “very important.”
    • “Written communications” tops the list of applied skills found lacking in high
    school and college graduates alike.
    • One in five U.S. workers read at a lower skill level than their job requires.vii
    • Remedial writing courses are estimated to cost more than $3.1 billion for large
    corporate employers and $221 million for state employers.

• You’ve decided that you have learned enought and you are a finished product

  • The case for lifelong learning from Stepcase LifeHack
    • Assuming the public school system hasn’t crushed your soul, learning is a great activity. It expands your viewpoint. It gives you new knowledge you can use to improve your life. Even if you discount the worldly benefits, the act of learning can be a source of enjoyment.  And some tips –

1) Always have a book.

2) Keep a “To-Learn” List

3) Get More Intellectual Friends

4) Guided Thinking

5) Put it Into Practice

6) Teach Others

7) Clean Your Input

8 ) Learn in Groups

9) Unlearn Assumptions

10) Find Jobs that Encourage Learning

11) Start a Project

12) Follow Your Intuition

13) The Morning Fifteen

14) Reap the Rewards.

15) Make it a Priority

• You believe everything you think.

• You  follow Ashton Kutcher – @aplusk on Twitter.

• You follow Ashton Kutcher’s numbers on Twitter.

  • 1,033.069 at 9.56 am today.

Ooops, now I am worried about me!

Your turn –

Any more ways you can think of?

Mike

Photo via Thomas Hawk

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