How Understanding Your Brain Can Help You Learn

A new book explains 6 keys to learning that can help anyone overcome barriers to success

Skills, like reading, can be learned and improved upon with effort. Unfortunately, those who believe these skills are more based on inborn ability, rather than acquired capability, risk having their motivation sapped by this mindset. Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

Recently, a close friend’s niece was having trouble graduating from college. She needed to pass a math class to graduate, but she wouldn’t take it because she feared flunking it. A belief that she just wasn’t “good at math” was keeping her stuck in graduation limbo, unable to move on with her life.

I know my friend’s niece isn’t the first person to be cowed by a math course or some other seemingly insurmountable barrier to success. Maybe someone gave you the message that you weren’t talented enough to succeed in a particular field, or you just didn’t have the confidence to persevere when you struggled.