Rethinking our weaknesses

On an online forum I occasionally read I recently read a post from a young man who said that he was struggling with school and was worried that he might fail several classes this semester. He said he was, for instance, "not good at math".

This sort of thing always makes me wonder how we sometimes get in that frame of mind. I believe that often our struggles with certain subjects has less to do with limitations of our mental capacity and more to do with some combination of attitude, desire and effort. And, once we struggle a bit, these things feed on each other.

I've noticed over the decades that kids learn to walk at roughly 1 year old, but that some kids start several months earlier and some don't get there for many months later. I don't think I've seen anyone show a lot of concern that little Junior hasn't managed to toddle across the carpet by 15 months of age. We don't label them as "not good at walking" and set our (and his) expectations accordingly. By the age of 2 or so, I doubt you can reliably separate the early walkers from the later ones.

Shouldn't it be the same for intellectual capabilities? If there can be such a large variation in the age we are ready to walk, it doesn't seem unreasonable that there might be some variation in the age we're ready to learn any somewhat complex subject.

There are also different methods of learning a subject. If your assumption about your ability is essentially based on your experience with one method, one teacher, one textbook... you may be selling yourself short.

What things have you assumed you're "just not good at"? Consider trying them again. Your mind is powerful, and here in the 21st Century you have countless resources available to you. With a bit of effort, you might surprise yourself.