Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

To say that my love language isn’t math is putting it mildly.

Without the help of a tutor, I may never have understood the basics of algebra.

And thanks to the kindness of my trigonometry teacher - and art-related extra credit - I received a just barely passing grade in his class.

So when, in conversation with a friend last night, she mentioned the “order of operations,” I almost tuned her out.

Order of operations being the steps for solving a math equation.

I started to squirm as I heard Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally over and over again in my head.

PEMDAS

Parentheses
Exponents
Multiply
Divide
Add
Subtract

But I smiled in understanding as she said, “If only our lives came with an order of operations, right?”

Knowing the steps to take - in exactly the right order - that would lead to the right solution.

Magic? Not really.

Because the steps are already within us.

But that first step? It’s the hardest.

Take it when you join me this week for my next Ask Me Anything on Tuesday, and join me and Erin Brown for Navigating imposter Syndrome in Life & Work, a 6-week mastermind, starting on Wednesday. Learn more here.

Over to you: Math was - overwhelmingly - my least favorite subject in school. What was yours?