Always study for tests.

There are important tests that everyone must go through in life.  There are academic tests as well as spiritual and emotional tests.  Study for them.  Apply your mind.  Take breaks and try to have fun with it.  Whether it's the SAT and GRE or a GED or TESOL, always remember to study.  It will help you in life.  CLICK HERE for test prep information.

I only got into Brown University because I studied so hard for the SATs.  Apply yourself and you can do really well academically for yourself.

Cultivate your interests.

Make a list of all things you are interested in and try to learn more about them.  Resolve to learn more and you will.  Learning comes with effort, but payoffs follow efforts.  Not always but usually.  I would advise you to make a list and look those topics up online.  Perhaps even start a blog of your own on your interests.  That's what I do.

Read people's blogs.

Not only is it a nice gesture toward the person who wrote the blog, it can inform you on many topics.  My fans are some of the most interesting people in the world because they read and learn more about the things which I blog about.  They might also be the craziest people in the world, but I love them all.  Anyone who reads my blogs is a friend of mine.  Especially if they click older posts.

Go to your local bookstore and library often.

There are always new books coming out.  Try to keep track of all of the knowledge which is flowing from different publishing companies.  There's a lot to know about out there.  You don't have to know anything about a topic to try to learn something new.  Remember that.

Do the puzzles in the morning paper, while you listen to the News.

This helps you both focus and divide your mind at the same time.  Being able to multitask is important, but so is being able to focus the mind on one thing at a time to do a thorough job of your thoughts.  If you can learn to selectively tune things in and out, you'll be doing pretty well.  So this is a little practice that I like to encourage people to do.  Do the puzzles in the paper along with the TV news in the morning.

Read the entire paper or at least skim.  It will keep you connected to the community, if it is a local paper, or to the world as a whole, if it is a major metropolitain paper, like the New York Times.

You need to read more or watch educational shows like PBS or NPR.

There is lots of enlightening work in the media on politics, culture, music, literature, science, education, and religion.  You should cultivate tastes based on the kinds of media you choose to let into your system.  And pay attention to what you are taking in, try to be an active instead of a passive listener to the media you consume.  In a lot of ways it determines who you are.  Even with comedy you can learn things from the Daily Show on Comedy Central or statistics on your favorite baseball players from watching ESPN.  No one said you have to be boring or a geek to be smart.