Most people I talk to “hate” math. It is one of the first subjects we are exposed to in our primary grades (1-3). First addition, then subtraction, multiplication and then division. Very basic stuff.
I find it fascinating how we forget their value in our lives. We should constantly revisit all four of these mathematical operations regularly. What do I mean by that?
1) We should learn to pay attention to what is missing in our lives to accomplish what we dream about. We should be working to ADD whatever knowledge, skills, contacts, or stuff we need to make things happen. It’s sad that I see so many who are not willing to be lifelong learners, who fail to understand that their learning does not stop at the end of school. (Most everything you will want to do as an adult will take more time, effort, and knowledge than anything you did or learned in school.)
2) We should learn to pay attention to what is of little value in our lives and SUBTRACT things from our life that either we have outgrown or don’t have a need for anymore. In watching a video lecture on growing a company by a 30 year old who was very successful in business he said he did not drink. While his friends were partying Thursday-Sunday (4 days) he chose to spend his time working on building his business. He used subtraction to bring time and focus into his life.
3) MULTIPLICATION in this context is the most difficult because I equate multiplication to having leverage in your life. My definition of leverage in this context is that your efforts consistently bring you more results. Using what you chose to focus on by adding skills or knowledge, and using subtraction to rid yourself of distractions, you will begin to leverage both who you are and what you know into what you can produce (results). Reliably. When you see evidence of multiplication in your life, you have found the axle to go with the wheel and the ground (previous post).
4) DIVISION is probably the simplest of the four mathematical operators within this context. I say this because you get tired when you have too many things to do or when you are pulled in too many directions. Your stress level rapidly increases when your time must be divided in too many ways. The hard part of division is simply being able to either say “no” or “not today”. Over a longer period of time, you must use subtraction to eliminate things you no longer need so that you totally eliminate the bad “feelings” that division creates in your life.
We need to actively seek multiplication in our lives by laying the foundation with addition together with subtraction to eradicate division. By doing these things with consistency, over time, we will become happier and more productive with less stress in our lives.
Remember, “just use your basic math”. EVERY DAY! How simple can that be?