Show your work

Often times, I hear people say: “I never apply in life the things that I was taught in math class.”  I always pause, and think…Well, In math class, we were taught to Show Our Work. How many times did you look at a problem, and know the right answer, yet failed to create the plan that arrived you at your answer? Raises hand.

This lead me to think: How am I showing my work in life? My goal is the answer that I am trying to reach. The vision that I hold  is the start of the equation. The plans that I map out are my work. My work is also the process I apply. Am I living a life that leads me to my goals? Am I taking the necessary actions toward achieving my dreams? Will others be able to view my work, and learn from it?

Math class taught patience, discipline, and perseverance while on the journey to my answers. It also taught that there is more than one route to reach the solution. We apply different variables, and many times we fail. This leads us back to the drawing board, or the start of the problem, which is our vision. During the process, many of us start to re-write our visions because we desire more than what the original answer can provide to complete our internal picture.

Math taught us the pursuit of a dream. The real question is: Are you working toward yours? And how are you showing your work, as others also glean from the process?  We all have work to do.  Giving up was never one of the things we were taught in math class.