Calling yourself “not that smart” when you’ve never really tried is its own kind of dishonesty.

Calling yourself limited before you have tried settles the question early. It sounds like modesty and works as protection, because a verdict you hand down yourself cannot be handed down by anyone else, and effort never spent can never be wasted. The cost is that you do not find out. Most people badly underestimate what ordinary work does across a year.

Pick the subject you have written off and give it four honest weeks before judging. Measure the effort rather than the talent. Notice how often that phrase turns up right before something difficult.