I've always believed this--without a doubt.
I believe anyone can learn anything. If there is a skill you want, no matter how difficult or how innate it feels, I believe it can be learned.
The things that seem most 'fixed' to me are things that no one seems to ever work on. Social skills are a prime example to me. I don't know many people who have purposely tried to become better socialites. We've accepted either 'introverted' or 'extraverted' along with the misconceptions that social skills are tied to each of them.
This morning, I read Khan Academy was going to take down the MCAT material. It had been so valuable to me. I'm glad I've taken the MCAT for the last time in my life (hopefully), but I'm sad to see so many will not get to benefit from it like I had been able to.
I perused through all of the updates that had happened through the website. Although I've used it in the last many months for studying MCAT, I felt I had no time to look through what the website had become. A lot has been accomplished!
Notable is this one web-page and two videos from it: https://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything
In this video, John Legend mentions his 6 years of failure from 1998 to 2004, where he was rejected from every major record label, including the one he is with now. He mentions people needing to break through the ceiling of where their natural talents take them.
This is where I've been impacted.
I think that my natural talents have carried me much further than the average person, which have allowed me to stand out without having to experience much failure. I'm naturally good at thinking, logic, sports, games, music, etc. I very much dislike struggling.
But, John Legend explains that even with a lot of natural talent, you'll reach a limit unless you go through the struggle.
So, now I'm ready to pick a few things and go through the struggle.
I've worked on volleyball, piano, and medicine, but have disliked the struggle I experience. When I start to get to the edge of what I'm able to accomplish, I get frustrated and stop. On the outside, I appear very persistent. And I am. I would say I am more persistent than the average person, and I embrace the struggle more than the average person.
But, I don't think I embrace the struggle as much as the greats do. I'd like to join the greats, not just be better than the averages.
My next step is to notice the struggle and then try to enjoy it. Once that starts happening, my learning can explode. Lord, help me because I hate difficulty. But, it'll be good for me.
