By Kenneth Williams

You're smart, witty and intelligent.

You've overcome many challenges in your life.

And yet, you can't do simple math sums in your

head.

Ever wonder why not?

In this short article, you're going to discover

the ONE reason you struggle with mental math.

And I promise you, it's NOT the reason you think

it is.

You see, it’s NOT your natural math ability, or

the way you were born, or any of the other lame

explanations you've been conditioned to believe.

No.

The real reason you're not a calculating whiz kid

is startlingly simple.

In fact it’s right in front of your eyes as you

read these words now. And yet it’s been hidden

from you all your life.

To understand it, you need to take a moment and

cast your mind back to your schooldays...

Imagine yourself in the math class, writing an

addition sum into your little notebook. Something

like this:

245 +

631

Doing what you were taught, you take your pencil

and first add up the units... (5 plus 1)

Then you add up the tens... (4 plus 3)

You do the same with the hundreds... (2 plus 6)

And finally you have your complete answer.

That's what you were taught. And that's how you do

math:

Units... Tens... Hundreds... Thousands... etc...

Except... now there's a problem.

Because the way you were taught to do math on

paper was suicidal to your ability to do math in

your head.

Do you know why?

Because you were taught how to do math...

BACKWARDS.

You were taught math back-to-front: from right-to-

left.

Think about it. When you read a number, how do you

do it?

Take a look at this number and read it out:

123

What did you say to yourself when you saw it?

You probably said "One Hundred and Twenty Three".

Or "One Two Three".

Whatever you said, I'll bet you didn't say...

"Uhm, 3 units, and then 2 tens that makes twenty,

and then 1 hundreds..."

The fact is, your mind processes numbers from left

to right. (The same way you're reading these words

now.) But the "school" part of your brain is

trying to process them in the opposite direction.

Are you beginning to see why you struggle to do

calculations in your head? Quite simply...

YOUR BRAIN IS STUCK IN REVERSE GEAR!

What would happen if you were taught to drive a

car the same way you were taught to do math?

- Your neck would ache from the strain of

constantly looking over your shoulder.

- You'd never go anywhere fast. And...

- You'd be a danger to everyone else on the road!

Pretty soon you'd give up driving completely, and

settle for public transport.

Just like the day you gave up trying to calculate

in your head... and settled for a lifetime of

calculator dependency.

Want to know another shocking secret?

If you have kids in school or college, you can

guarantee their brains are stuck in reverse gear

too.

Why?

Because the education establishment doesn't like

rapid change. It prefers the traditional "Tried &

Tested" approach.

Unfortunately, as you know, the traditional

approach doesn't always work.

(If it did, why are there an estimated two million

people suffering from 'math phobia' in the United

States alone?

And that's not including the millions more who

could dramatically improve their math ability just

by changing their approach.)

Let’s look at that little addition sum again:

245 +

631

This is easy to do from left to right:

You add 2 and 6 to get 8.

You add 4 and 3 to get 7.

And you add 5 and 1 to get 6.

The answer is 876.

Simple, isn't it?

Look, if you learn nothing else about math...

start calculating from left to right.

With just a little practice you'll "read off" the

correct answer every time.

And you'll wonder why you missed the secret of

mental math for so long.

About The Author Kenneth Williams is creator of the popular Fun With Figures math course, responsible for helping thousands of perfectly normal kids and adults eliminate their math blocks. Find out more at: http://FunWithFigures.com. Print-friendly version