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Getting Ready For TV Turnoff Week!

  TV-Turnoff 
  Originally uploaded by TijmenK

The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely. -T.S. Eliot

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. -Charles W. Eliot  

I really didn't like TV-Turnoff Week except I did notice that my grades went up and I was in a good mood all week. -Drew Henderson, 2nd grade

It is that time of year again, folks--TV Turnoff week is next week April 21-27, and I challenge all of us to turn off the boob tube and find some other way to occupy our minds. I'm telling you--if you are used to watching TV every day, then this will be a healthy challenge for ya!

A few years ago I participated in my first TV Turnoff week, and found it so much harder than I was expecting. Apparently I was much more dependent on TV than I thought! But I knew that I was adding value to my life by spending less time watching TV, and I came up with a way to completely ween myself off TV for an entire year!

Here are some resources that will help you take on this challenge and ween yourself off of TV:

The saga of how I gave up TV for an entire year

10 ways to cope with going TV free

How To Get Started Reading More Books & What To Read When You Do

Everyone, let's get ready for next week. Is anyone else gonna do this? I'm telling you it may change your life--it changed mine!

I'd like my crayons back, please

  Box-o-Crayons for Tricia [83/365] 
  Originally uploaded by turbojoe

Everyone is born creative. Everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, "I'd like my crayons back, please."

So you've got the itch to do something. Write a screenplay, start a painting, write a book, turn your recipe for fudge brownies into a proper business, whatever. You don't know where the itch came from, it's almost like it just arrived on your doorstep, uninvited. Until now you were quite happy holding down a real job, being a regular person...

Until now.

~Gaping Void

How napping can stimulate creativity

  poetry boat 
  Originally uploaded by bbmarie

Creative ideas are the bread and butter of any entrepreneur. A great problem solving idea can become a large part of your livelihood, and the continuing growth of your business is depended on your ability to create more groundbreaking ideas.

It's not always easy though. Some ideas seem to come out of thin air, some are spurred by our own experiences (necessity is the mother of invention), and still other ideas come about more mystically. Since we're so dependent on new ideas, wouldn't it be nice if we could take some specific steps to increase our chances of coming up with an earth shattering idea?

I'm thinking of two particular creative thinkers whose greatest ideas resulted during or immediately after a time of sleep: