Why Smart People Have Difficulty Learning New Skills

How to avoid the talent trap and level up

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler

What skill do you long to have? Do you harbour dreams of painting a landscape or hitting a great tee shot or cooking the perfect soufflé? And how many times have you told yourself that you can’t do it and you don’t have the talent?

The problem is not being able to learn. The problem is being willing to learn.

You’re a born learner

You’re reading this now using learned skills, just as you gained the ability to walk and feed yourself and communicate. Humans take a long time to grow up because of the many and complex skills needed in adulthood.

But at some point we decide we’re done learning. Even when something attracts us, we come up with many good reasons why we don’t go for it.

• I don’t have the talent for______
• I’ll never be able to _____
• I’ve never been any good at _______
• People like me can’t _____

Smart people are very good at rationalising their emotional choices.

You want to move forward, but it feels impossible because you’re chained to a past that doesn’t serve you. You might not even recognise the self-sabotage because it all feels very familiar. Why would you do that to yourself?

If the thoughts you have on repeat sound like those above, you have a fixed mindset.

Carol Dweck described fixed and growth mindsets as two ways of approaching to new learning or situations. With a fixed mindset, you believe your abilities and qualities are defined and unchanging.

A fixed mindset looks back to the past, which cannot be changed, and therefore there’s no point in trying. But a growth mindset looks ahead to the future, which is unwritten, and therefore by trying you can always improve.

Growth-minded people are excited to try new things and willing to put in the effort to learn, because they know they can improve if they do the work. They are future-oriented.

Smart people hold themselves back

Cleverness is no guarantee of sensible behaviour. Joe Abercrombie

Strangely, successful and smart people often harbour a fixed mindset. They believe they are innately talented or clever — and conversely that others are not — and therefore they don’t need to try. Because they’re successful, they never meet a situation in which they don’t excel… until they do.

I used to teach future family physicians. They were capable, skilled adults who had already passed many tests in their education and careers. They were used to winning and conditioned to avoid failure from an early age. But some stumbled when they were asked to consider problems from an unfamiliar viewpoint, or learn new skills.

“I’ve never had an issue with exams before, and I’m not changing my approach now because that’s what failed/weak/stupid people do.”

They could not accept any assessment that didn’t award high marks. What appeared to be intellectual snobbery was actually the rigidity of a fixed mindset colliding with a new challenge.

“If I can’t do this effortlessly, I’m not the clever person I think/know I am.”

This resulted in different responses, all designed to defend the ego.

• doing this is the only way to prove myself worthy, and if I can’t do this I’m worthless and I give up — all or nothing thinking
• blaming teaching or methodology — deflection
• storming out of sessions — anger
• cutting classes or taking sick leave — avoidance
• repeating the same actions even though it doesn’t produce the desired result — perseveration, often combined with denial
• analysing the behaviour and accepting feedback with a willingness to change — introspection

Only the last response allows improvement. If you find yourself angry or upset that you can’t do Y because you’ve never had issues with A to X, consider why. The past does not always predict the future, because it’s always possible to meet a challenge that exceeds your ability.

Fortunately there is a way forward.

The future is growth

Don’t go through life, grow through life. Eric Butterworth

To learn anything new, embrace a growth mindset.

Whatever results you achieved before, your future results are decided by the effort you put in now.

Let go of having to be perfect and instead aim for progress. A small but sustained increase every day or week will compound over time into significant gains.

The opinions of people from your past are irrelevant to the present. The voices of parents, teachers, or peers can be loud, but in embracing a growth mindset you strip away their negative power.

Be teachable. Listen to constructive critique and advice, and incorporate it into your next efforts. When something doesn’t work, look for another way.

Improvement is always possible.

The novice is not a master — yet

We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started. Henry Ward Beecher

Don’t fall into the trap of comparing your efforts to the results of someone at the top of their field. They owe their success to a combination of natural predisposition, focused deliberate practice, and a ton of hard work.

Every master has his failures, but he treats them as learning experiences on the way to greater success. Beyonce didn’t stop after one Grammy, nor did Roger Federer after one grand slam title. They challenged themselves to do more and push to the limits of their capabilities.

Compare your present only to your past efforts, and know you are capable of more.

When you catch yourself feeling like you’ll never achieve a new skill, instead say I can’t do that yet.

Take a break, take some instruction.

Then get back to work.

I’m a writer of fiction and non fiction, and sometime family physician. Connect at 2squarewriting for my guide to reclaiming your creativity.