In retrospect my biggest obstacle in school was, nobody ever really taught me how to improve, and so I was never good enough to enjoy myself. The dominant cult

In retrospect my biggest obstacle in school was, nobody ever really taught me how to improve, and so I was never good enough to enjoy myself. The dominant culture focused on the value of grit and perseverance through suffering. I bought into it, and learned how to suffer, but your capacity for suffering is always limited. As a result, I would start to deplete my capacity and lose drive to practice before I got to see much in the way of results. Nobody taught me that you can slowly improve over months and years without having to dip into your capacity for suffering- and get better results. The sad part is, because you can get results this way, it’s easy to get stuck in this way of thinking. “If I was just a little tougher, I could shave 5 minutes off my half marathon time.” This is how people wind up permanently damaging their bodies, as they focus on ignoring the pain instead of getting better.