KWIK BRAIN
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April 22, 2019
Overcome Math Anxiety to Conquer Your Finances with Danica McKellar
"The whole point is to make math fun so it’s not scary."
DANICA MCKELLAR
n addition to her lifelong acting career, Danica McKellar is an internationally recognized mathematician and advocate for math education. A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA with a degree in Mathematics, Danica has been honored in Britain’s esteemed Journal of Physics and the New York Times for her work in mathematics, most notably for her role as co-author of a ground-breaking mathematical physics theorem which bears her name (The Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem).
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Show Notes
MATH & OUR FINANCES
- Money & finances are one of the most practical reasons to learn math
- Numbers run the world—it’s a second language everyone should know
- If you’re not comfortable with numbers lots of institutions would love to take advantage of that—whether it’s a contract you get into, credit card statement, your mortgage
- Tricky stuff like people offering to refinance your house but increasing the loan amount without you realizing will happen to you all the time unless you can deal with numbers
- Avoiding numbers comes from math phobia which begins at a young age
- Danica’s book mentioned: Goodnight Numbers
SCHOOL MATH
- Danica speaking at a middle school: how many of you have wanted to start your own business? What’s going to keep those doors open? Math
- We have two choices: get good at math or get ripped off. This affects everybody, we can all get ripped off and not even know it
- You don’t have to become a math lover, but Danica wants every kid growing up to say I can do it, I got this
- If you’re an adult it’s not too late for you. You can push past your fears, what’s the worst that can happen?
- Danica’s book mentioned: Math Doesn’t Suck
- Study a little bit of math—do it in baby steps. Start with percents, fractions, decimals: how do they work together, what does it mean?
- When you feel your brain shutting off due to emotional trauma you’ll recognize the moment from school fears about math. It’s not a rational fear, it’s an irrational childhood-based demon you can excise
RESISTANCE TO MATH
- Resistance to numbers can manifest in avoiding your finances
- There are plenty of tips and stories in Danica’s books to make learning math fun again
- You don’t have to hold on to your math limitations—stop fighting for this limitation, don’t be proud of it, you can fix it and do something about it
- People almost delight in the comfort of saying: I can’t do math, but no-one would do this for something like reading
- Remember: it’s not about how smart you are, it’s how are you smart
- When you learn how you learn the best, you can apply it to any topic including math
YOU CAN IMPROVE
- The idea here is that if you are bad at something, it doesn’t have to be permanent
- Episode mentioned: Imagination for Courage, Creativity & Change with Beth Comstock
- As Beth Comstock said: “If failure is not an option, then neither is success.”
- Change your thinking: there are no mistakes, they are just proof that you’re trying
- The struggle is part of the learning process, it’s how you get stronger
- Learning math will help with your problem-solving ability and every part of your life
- You don’t have to spend money on learning math. Most of Danica’s books are at the library, just spend time on it and give yourself the gift of learning
- Investment in knowledge always pays the best dividends
TAKEAWAYS
- If you have a fear of numbers this fear was learned. You can turn fear into fun by adding creativity, imagination, gamifying it for yourself and your children
- Easier to start early with kids than fixing it for adults: we all want them to have an easier time than we did
- You can check out Danica’s math books for all ages at mckellarmath.com
- Listening to this episode about finances might be a wake-up call for you, use it as an opportunity to turn things around—maybe the treasure you seek is hidden in the work you’re avoiding and maths will open a lot of things up for you
- Remember: a little becomes a lot and consistency compounds
- Learning math is a form of self-care too: go to the gym and look after your body, do a little math and look after your brain—the whole point is to make this fun so it’s not scary
- When math becomes fun it can then be fun to do your finances: saving and investing can be treated as fun, and you can feel in control of your life, CEO of your own company
- Math will give you the strength to say this isn’t a good investment or confront credit companies after you pay attention to numbers
- You can take the power back from institutions who take advantage of people who are not math-literate
- While you’re learning math remember: you don’t have to be perfect at this, it’s a process
SHARE
- Take a screenshot of this episode, tag us both on social media (@danicamckellar & @jimkwik), share your greatest “aha!” moment from this episode with us and tell us how you’re going with math!
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Overcome Math Anxiety to Conquer Your Finances with Danica McKellar
Overcome Math Anxiety to Conquer Your Finances with Danica McKellar
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