A lot of writing is fill - wasted words intended to make the author look good, to distract your attention, or to simply fill more space. Being able to cut through the crap and get straight to what is actually being said, without being distracted, is an important skill.

find a basic book on informal logic (it will have a title like 'critical thinking' or something like that).

The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television. Do not simply accept what you are told. Always ask, how can you know that this is true? What evidence would lead you to believe that it is false?

Every day, subject at least one piece of information (a newspaper column, a blog post, a classroom lecture) to thorough scrutiny. Analyze each sentence, analyze every word, and ask yourself what you are expected to believe and how you are expected to feel.

But it is important to at least recognize that there are other people, and that they live in their own world as well.

Part of this process involves seeing things through someone else's eyes.

When you are empathetic you will begin to seek out and understand ways that help bridge the gap between you and other people. Being polite and considerate, for example, will become more important to you. You will be able to feel someone's hurt if you are rude to them.

The trick is to understand how creativity works. Sometimes people think that creative ideas spring out of nothing (like the proverbial 'blank page' staring back at the writer) but creativity is in fact the result of using and manipulating your knowledge in certain ways.

Creativity also arises in response to a specific problem: how to rescue a cat, how to cross a gap, how to hang laundry.

earn to look for problems to solve, things that merit a response, needs that need to be filled.

Creativity, in other words, often operates by metaphor, which means you need to learn how to find things in common between the current situation and other things you know.

Knowing what to say is often a matter of structure.

Inside this overall structure, writers provide arguments, explanations, descriptions or definitions, sometimes in combination.

Learning to write clearly is a matter of learning about the tools, and then practice in their application. Probably the best way to learn how to structure your writing is to learn how to give speeches without notes. This will force you to employ a clear structure (one you can remember!) and to keep it straightforward. I have written more on this, and also, check out Keith Spicer's book, Winging It.

Then practice your writing every day.

When you learn, you are trying to create patterns of connectivity in your brain.

you need to repeat it over and over, in order to grow this neural connection.

Think about learning how to throw a baseball. Someone can explain everything about it, and you can understand all of that, but you still have to throw the ball several thousand times before you get good at it. You have to grow your neural connections in just the same way you grow your muscles.

but learning is more like recognition than remembering.

you should be asking, "what is the pattern" (and not merely "what are the facts")

Learning to learn is the same as learning anything else. It takes practice.

Think, always, about how you are learning and what you are learning at any given moment. Remember,

Every day, seek to be active in some way

Advertisers make you feel badly so you'll buy their product, politicians make you feel incapable so you'll depend on their policies and programs, even your friends and acquaintances may seek to make you doubt yourself in order to seek an edge in a competition.

but they are meaningless if you do not feel personally empowered to use them; it's like owning a Lamborghini and not having a driver's license.

Valuing yourself is partially a matter of personal development, and partially a matter of choice.

How we think about ourselves is as much a matter of learning as anything else.

But if you repeat, and believe, and behave in such a way as to say to yourself over and over, I am valuable, then that's what you will come to believe.

For example, it's the belief that you are good enough to have an opinion, have a voice, and have a say, that your contributions do matter. It's the belief that you are capable, that you can learn to do new things and to be creative. It is your ability to be independent, and to not rely on some particular person or institution for personal well-being, and autonomous, capable of making your own decisions and living your live in your own way.

Tell yourself that you are smart, you are cool, you are strong, you are good, and whatever else you want to be. Say it out loud, in the morning - hidden in the noise of the shower, if need be, but say it. Then, practice these attributes. Be smart by (say) solving a crossword puzzle. Be cool by making your own fashion statement. Be strong by doing something you said to yourself you were going to do. Be good by doing a good deed. And every time you do it, remind yourself that you have, in fact, done it.

your dedication to some purpose or goal. But it is also your sense of appreciation and dedication to the here and now.

What is worth doing? That is up to you to decide.

If you don't decide what is worth doing, someone will decide for you,

you control your thoughts. Your thoughts have no power over you;

Another aspect of this is the following: what you are doing right now is the thing that you most want to do. Now you may be thinking, "No way! I'd rather be on Malibu Beach!" But if you really wanted to be on Malibu Beach, you'd be there. The reason you are not is because you have chosen other priorities in your life - to your family, to your job, to your country.