Seth Godin had a great blog post the other day that really resonated with me because I heard several different students at different times say words to the effect of, "I'm not smart."
First of all, I don't think that was true of any of them. They were saying this as kind of a way to excuse the fact that they didn't know something. But that's not smart, that's just informed.
Secondly, that is horrible self-talk. You start listening to yourself say that very much and pretty soon you'll end up believing it.
And it's not true!
Anyway, here is the link to Seth's post and a copy of it below.
"I'm not that smart."
Someone said that to me the other day and it was heartbreaking.
The number of tasks in our culture that require someone who was born with off-the-charts talent is small indeed.
Just about everything else we need people to do is the result of effort, practice and care. It’s true that variations of that work are easier for some folks, but no one finds all of it easy going.
The correct thing to say is, “I don’t care that much.” I don’t care enough to do the reading, to fail along the way, to show up, to make a promise, to learn as I go, to confront failure, to get better at the work.
All of that might be true.
But you’re almost certainly smart enough.
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