It’s ridiculously simple: stop watching TV.

I have nothing against TV. There are many great programmes that can expand your mind, challenge and inspire you, present new opportunities and show you things in a new way. The trouble is watching TV doesn’t teach you to think.

Your brain is a learning machine. You never stop learning. There’s no choice about the matter: you automatically learn, whether you pursue it or not. The choice comes in what you learn.

If you don’t take control of what you learn, you learn at random. You learn some good things, and some bad, but there’s no direction or theme to what you learn. And by learning, I don’t mean just learning facts or theories, I mean habits of thought, points of view, skills. Random learning is great for trivia collecting, but that’s about it. All you will do is turn your mind into a museum of curiosities.

You have to direct your learning because your mind is what guides your life. If it’s full of good things, your life will be good. If it’s full of rubbish, your life will be rubbish!

The king of all the things you could possibly learn, and the skill I most try to develop, is creativity. Creativity allows you to find the beautiful solution to an ugly situation. Right now, creative problem solving is making people rich in the midst of a recession — right now, as you are reading this. Doesn’t that annoy you? With creativity you can turn being fired into the best thing that ever happened. You can take your broken past and turn it into a beautiful future.

The problem with watching TV is that it doesn’t train your brain to do anything but take in. Did you know that your brain is less active when you watch TV then when you’re asleep? It goes fully into input-mode. It’s almost trance like. There’s no other state that I can think of that’s like it. Maybe being a passenger in a car comes close — I always completely zone out, and have to really concentrate to make conversation. But even then I’m thinking.

While you’re in this trance-like state, advertisers can implant things straight into your unconscious mind. Most adverts are designed to make a brand feel cool, or friendly, or helpful. Advertisers rarely sell things based on hard facts: they go for subjective feelings. This particular cleaning product loves your kids and wants them to be healthy. This particular food is traditional (even though it’s sold online and is made in a factory). This university is better because it’s established and full of “heritage” (or is it stuffy and old-fashioned, while the glorified polytechnic will give you more practical skills?).

The other thing with TV is that it gives the impression that you’re doing something (being the hero, winning the race, being a business success … whatever) when really you’re just watching other people doing that — or pretending to do that! No matter how much 24 I watch, I will never be Jack Bauer. No matter how much Secret Millionaire I watch, I am not helping disadvantaged people with my millions!

Simply switching off the TV forces you to find other things to do, think new things, meet new people. It’s painful at first. You have to face up to the fact that you don’t know what to do with free time! But it gets easier as time goes on. And you get better the more you do it.

If you want a better job, don’t spend your evenings in front of the tube. Read blogs like Escape From Cubicle Nation and Ittybiz and Entrepeneurs-Journey.com. If you want to improve your relationships, go out more! Learn the art of small talk that leads to great conversations. It feels awkward at first, but it gets better. If you want to learn how to cook, buy Delia Smith’s book — don’t just watch her on TV!

If you can’t rid yourself of TV altogether (and who does?), just set a goal that you’ll spend an hour or two doing something creative before you veg out. And TV isn’t completely wrong. When I can’t sleep, watching TV is great for closing down the insomnia circus* that seems to visit my head from time to time.

Free your mind. Switch off the TV!

* Damn, I was funny back then! When did I get all serious on this blog!?