Being a gifted kid wrecked my 20s. Here's how I fixed it. 

As a “gifted” kid I have said the EXACT words “I could have done it if I tried” to myself more times than I can count. Learning to accept I’m more than the label and just a normal individual is difficult, but I’m improving. I never realized how damaging this quote is to me though. I really needed this video thanks

For former gifted kids, “I am stupid” can be the most empowering words they can ever say.

"We go from talented kids to loser adults" was so real, I couldnt help laughing out loud

I remember one single question completely changed my mindset on this sort of thing: “Would you rather others see you as smart or a hard worker?” And I had a moment where I realized ‘smart’ and ‘talented’ don’t really mean anything. What matters is that you are a reliable, disciplined person other people can depend on.

It also hurts when people around you, especially adults, give most of their praise and attention when you’re showing your talents. It can feel like you only matter when you’re doing impressive things. If you don’t realize it, that belief can really bring you down.

OMG. This is EXACTLY what I needed! I always could do things in school with low effort. Especially about math. But then I started studying in university and that time studying actually required me to start trying. I felt very bad about that, eventually I just "hid behind a shield "I could have done this if I tried", explaining to myself that I just don't need that exact "useless" stuff that they give me You cannot imagine how much I regret being like that. And here I am now, often labeling other people as "dumb" ones, internally refusing to accept the fact that I am just a normal person.. Yeah, I think it's time to change my personality a bit. Thank u for that video ^_^

I can remember always thinking "school isn't that hard, everyone else must just not be trying." Things came naturally to me. I almost never had to study for a test or rewrite an essay. And as a result, I never developed the ability to correct myself, rework ideas, and persevere when things got difficult. In my first year of college I realized just how important work ethic is. Like you say, talent only gets you so far. Thanks for articulating this idea so well.

I relate to this HEAVILY. Throughout middle and high school I was labeled "the smart one" and truly believed I was naturally better at all academics. However, once genuine challenges arose I told myself a similar phrase. "I don't need to waste my energy on this, it's probably easy anyways." With that mindset my progress stalled, I all of a sudden became an average student with little motivation to learn anything that I felt was "beneath me." My passion for learning slowly dissipated as classes got harder and harder until my grades inevitably slipped and I realized that I was just an average student with average problems and an average capacity to learn. Admittedly, I was hesitant to accept that fact given that it was the trait I valued most in myself, but once I did it became immensely easier to simply put effort into learning. I wish I could show this video to all the other gifted kids with the same problem because it seems to be so common, and it could have done so much for school-aged me

This is very relatable. I used to be a topper before. But my internet addiction caused my downfall. And my laid-back carelessness from all the past success contributed to my downfall even more. Meanwhile my friends who'd look up to me started outgrowing me and it felt hella embarrassing. Thank you for this video.

As a precocious kid who taught himself calculus 1 in 7th grade, this really hit home, especially the “ I could’ve done it if I tried “ excuse for not attempting hard stuff.

I had this talk with someone else as well. I find myself incapable of hard work. If something doesn't come naturally to me, I'll just give up on it entirely, even if it's something I loved doing. The bit about '300 hobbies' hit real close to home. The worst part for me was (and still is) the imposter syndrome. I've sat through so many "you are so talented/you are so gifted/you are a genius, if only you applied yourself..." conversations that it just ends up with imposter syndrome. I am constantly questioning myself and my own capabilities, questioning if I even deserve being called 'smart'. Even as I sit here, as a full-time university lecturer who's working on advancing his education, I still always feel like a fraudster. That I'm not gifted or talented, but that I've simply memorised enough catch-phrases and enhanced my linguistic capabilities enough to fool people. I'm not smart, I'm a con artist. That is truly an awful feeling.

The “I could have done it if I tried” concept resonates! It’s almost intrusive and hard to shake off… this was enlightening! Thanks for sharing this Jin

i needed this so much , I was feeling bad about how I work comparing to others who certaintly are advanced than me in the journey of progress. Thank you Jin for posting this video I'm glad to know about such an incredible channel .

End of my 20s I started falling behind in my career, and I sat down and really studied for 3 months (for the first time in my life), and allowing myself to fail as well, it was life changing!

im seventeen, i used to be this gifted kid but ive started to say this to me every time. you CAN fail, but with that you MUST improve and not knowing since birth is okay. my parents would judge when i allowed myself to fail, but this life is mine, not theirs, and since i acknowledged that, life's been better ♡

Something that took me a while to learn is how to ask for help, and that doing so is okay. One consequence of labelling yourself as smarter than others is a feeling of shame when it comes to asking for help, as you feel like you shouldn't need it and that it somehow devalues your talent.

I was 2E (twice exceptional, meaning both gifted and disabled) Most adults look at how these kids perform in some areas and think "clearly, they are capable." But 2E kids are disabled and need accommodations like any other, yet most don't receive help because their giftedness masks their struggles and the kids fly under the radar. When I think about how I was overlooked, I feel devastated. Regardless, I am an adult now so I have the responsibility to fix these things. This video definitely opened up my mind about this stuff, so thank you!

This is exactly what happened to me, I used to be a banger in primary school and somewhat ranked #1 in a math competition in my country. I was so delusional back then, but then the math keeps getting harder and harder and in 8th grade, I'm not the one at the top anymore, barely qualified for my school's math team. That was the wake-up call for me and ever since then I learned how to be humble and completely changed, but what really sucks is the perfectionist mindset that my parents imposed on the "gifted" me still linger until now. I tried so so hard to get a B+ and dad just casually said such a shame I didn't get enough to make it to A, that's why Asian parents suck. Still love my parents tho, but I wish they just praised me more or recognized my hard work instead of just saying that I have to do that much because I have talents :(

‘you are a normal person who is stupid and you need to put in effort’ - i am so happy to hear that. i’ve been feeling like a failure recently in all categories, what made me the proudest is now turning extremely hard, it isn’t coming so naturally anymore. i am trying to learn from the people around me.

I am fourteen years old, often labelled as "gifted." I have struggled much in my current grade, and my underperformance is guided by a terrible attention span, which is often accompanied by listless thoughts that place no blame upon myself. Thank you for uploading this.

I'm in highschool now, and I'm starting to recover from being "gifted" and "smart" this whole time; putting effort in how I study is a never-ending struggle. I wish I had trouble in school ever since the begginning, sometimes. It would've taught me to put more effort into things.

I'm 29, and I felt this motivation! I was the gifted kid, but life happened and I had to take care of my family, and that caused me to put college on the back burner. But, I'm going back to school now to get my B.S. in 2024. This was a another great push for me! Thank you kind Sir!

This video hit me pretty hard, I grew up being told I was the best artist in my entire school and had incredible imagination and talent. However, I let me ego run and ended up falling behind many art students I used to look down on. As I started to struggle in school, I went from the gifted kid who was gonna do great things to this nobody and I felt awful. I kept telling myself that I’m incredibly gifted and I can beat anyone in the field of art if I just try hard enough. But I later ended learning I wasn’t gonna become anything if I just keep making excuses when I struggle. I think this video had been eye opening because we’re always told the perspective from the talentless kid who raised to the top in the media but never the perspective of the kid who was talented at a young age but ended up falling behind in life.

"Gave me the permission to fail". Really needed to hear that. Growing up academically smart makes you believe that you can't fail, atleast never in your professional/academic life. And when you do, the pain is unbearable.

"You are a normal person that is stupid sometimes, and you need to put in effort to achieve anything" is an amazing summary of the realizations I've encountered in my most recent years as a third-year undergrad

Let’s be real. This is a problem with a school system which has no idea how to challenge intelligent students. The “gifted kid” problem only exists because our system isn’t challenging for those students. Gifted kids in a very challenging system have to learn how to “try and work hard”.

Wow I relate a lot and now that I'm older, I realize this is the source of my struggles. I don't think I was a "gifted kid" per say, but it was easy for me back in elementary school until high school to get decent grades, I got used to being first in class at almost all subjects. I was the shy smart girl in the class, and from the outside no one could tell I was never giving it my 100%. Did not help at all that my brother was also a smart kid, the pressure to always be at the top was big. Truth is I was always doing things last minute and procrastinating to study, but it somehow worked, until architecture school lol. That was brutal, the sheer amount of work crushed me, as someone who never learned to work hard. I don't even know how I was able to graduate with the way I was doing things. I remember I even thought why were the others able to work so "easily" on their projects while I was struggling so bad to even get started? Nowadays I still haven't learnt to work hard for what matters to me, getting really motivated at the beginning of passion projects or at work, but getting bored and discouraged as soon as hard work is needed. I'm tired of being bored of things and being lazy all the time. I even though I had Adhd, thinking it was the source of everything. But I think it's this "gifted or smart kid" thing, combined with the past pressure of having to put on a facade for asian parents and bring good grades home, without so much as compliments or encouragements, as if it was the norm. I dreaded not being able to bring good grades home, so I hid my struggles for the longest time. I'm finally understanding where this is all coming from and trying to work on this. Accepting that I am really no better than anyone, but it's not easy, this "gifted kid" thing is still engrained in me, in a subconscious level, I think I still believe I'm talented in some area like art, and it's hindering me a looooot to start working hard for what I want. But I know I have to let go of this label otherwise I'll be stuck forever. Thank you for your video :) I wish there were more talks on this, especially in the asian community.

I know this exact feeling. Although lifelong imposter syndrome has always prevented me from seeing myself as intelligent or competent, up until now, I have never had to actually try. And I'm terrified to. I'm terrified at the reality that I have always wanted to be a writer yet am too afraid at not being good enough to even begin. And people still expect me to be the smart, unproblematic one. I have let everyone down and tricked them into thinking I'm smart. I'm not. There really is no such thing as being "smart" anyways, there are too many ways to be intelligent to track, and most of the time we mean educated. But I continue to trick them. I have wasted school by coasting by on how easy it was instead of actually trying to learn and now I am paying the price.

Definitely the issue with myself. I live in SEA, before high school i was always the top student without putting in much efforts. English as a second language is far too easy for me, my English back in 6th grade even surpassed most high schoolers. But i started to feel the heat after high school, and so i keep making excuses, lying to myself. It doesn't come easy but after almost 7 years of wasting my potential in University that i started to realize my problem. Thank you Jin and hope my story can help younger folks in the comment

Hi fellow burnt out gifted kids! I love you all, I hope you’re doing well, and please remember you *are* enough. You are more than your ability to perform academically. Be kind to yourselves. 💜

I went from failing to having good grades to failing again...Life feels hard when your motivation runs out but you motivated me again! Thank you

I liked the points you make in the video!!! The part where you say that the « dumb » kids LEARNED to work hard is so true. I wasnt the most gifted but it definitely was too easy sometimes and now i feel like nothing is easy anymore. Btw: I really like your hand writing!!

I was lucky in high school there was an even smarter kid (he moved to my area, all the other kids I grew up with). I remember he won the top student every year and even apologized to me for 'taking it'. I told him, without him I would have never pushed myself and achieved so much. In University, however, exactly what you described happened to him, kinda. He went from top student to a B average. While I had really learnt how to study back in highschool and managed straight As. At Uni, I observed the top students all worked hard, and the very top students had a little bit of talent/gift to give them that additional edge. Another factor is doing what you enjoy, so you naturally want to work hard. That really allows you to hyper focus and achieve what others cant.

This happened in highschool. For the first time ever, I wasn't the best performing guy in the room since it was the honors class. I kept getting discouraged because I assumed it was because they were smarter than me and I had just lost and had no confidence in my ability anymore. But, it was really just the fact that a lot of them were not only smart, but worked hard too. That's why I was getting left behind. So now that I'm in uni, I just assume I'm the dumbest kid in the room and work my butt off everyday until I can confidently say I am ahead. And yeah, the 300 hobbies thing is true. You get into this cycle of starting something, quickly grasping it, then quitting once it requires too much effort. This really sucks because now that I am trying to learn specifc things, I still have the nasty habit of getting lazy once it gets difficult, even if I know exactly what I have to do. Like now, I'm supposed to be studying for a certification exam, but I'm commenting on a YT video with an unnecessarily extensive comment.

Having adequate challenges early in life also helps. My school has always encouraged me to take part in all sorts of state-level academic competitions, where I suddenly was not the smartest kid

You'll simply realize that the actual smart thing to do is to be humble, and get the things done. I didn't realize college(engineering) was even remotely hard conceptually and technically until I realize I was also studying hard as well as having strong intuition and talent. I have escaped my loser mentality and I will not let anyone beat me again that I will make this "I could've done it" excuse. Yes, we can learn and do whatever we want but until we actually do, it doesn't matter. We need to get stuff done and stop being a loser haha🎉

Learning to try to have a growth mindset and learning to accept/attempt failure made all the difference for me in college. People do have different opportunities and start in different places but we can “prepare to get lucky” and work hard for when we do find those opportunities.

Always love to see your videos. Each shot is so intentional. The story always rounds out with an actionable solution and mindset shift. Hope to see your page grow!

Reading all these comments, I'm just glad we're not alone. Sailed through my teens using 100% intelligence while playing video games 24/7, but started to develop mental issues in high school. Currently 23 and learning how to fix my life, and learning how to work hard in college.

"Give yourself permission to fail" is a powerful line. My ego has prevented me from addressing the fantasy I've had about myself from youth. It served as a defence mechanism to shield me from reality. I always assumed that things would just work out eventually in adulthood, esspecially since I made animation movies at 7 and was a trained fixed-wing pilot by 17. I was even offered a contract with United, but turned it down because I wouldn't commit to anything. Now, I'm a minimum wage worker trying to get myself back on track with a far more realistic view of myself and my place in the world. I train mma, which further forces me to address the reality that emerges in physical challenges.

Thank you so much, this is the first time I truly feel like someone called me out on my bullshit and I really needed it. If it wasn't for this video I would never have gotten out of the cycle of procrastinating and living in the delusion that I am still that smart kid from highschool.

Thanks man, this was much needed It's crazy how i could relate to basically everything, from not having to struggle growing up, i developed bad habits like not being disciplined I always turned in my homework late, because i knew the teachers would let it slide I became that kid who isnt disciplined but would always come at the top of class From having a lot of hobbies, being easily distracted these days, giving the excuse of "i could have done this if i wanted to", this video was so on point It's crazy how u were able to describe so many people

“Compared to these people, you’re nothing special.” That line stings yet at the same time, it’s the line that helps get through roadblock since you don’t feel crushed by your potential, but rather, learn that you have the right to fail. You’re allowed to struggle, you’re allowed to be a screw up.

I’m a “gifted kid” but my mom always made me study, and try, no matter if I could recite the material back to her flawlessly without a second glance at the material. Now in college I’m doing just as good, because Ik how to put in the effort. Thank you mammaaa

Man, I can't stress enough how relatable that was to me. I never thought about myself as a gifted child but I certainly resonate with the 'I could have done it if I tried'. I don't remember putting effort on pretty much anything when I was younger and when I started college the only thing moving me to study was the fear of failing a subject. My grades were pretty average and I couldn't see a way to improve on anything that I liked due to the same lie: 'I could have done it if I tried'. Thank you for the video my friend, I will be rethinking a lot of my life right now.

This topic is pretty sensitive indeed. I just like how you did shed light in it, throughout my experiences i have always thought that having different kind of knowledge and doing as least as possible yet managing to get good scores is the key to winning in life, but after watching your video and confronting myself, i have got to realise that im not special at all, neither anyone is, we're just normal human beings trying. In order for you to get better in life, you should put some effort, screw comfort zone, screw excuses, and screw putting the blame on others! You're responsible for your own actions. I hope we all get to understand this message deeply and work ourselves hard in order to get in better positions in life. Wishing you all and me Good luck 🌹

I think in school and highschool level the best thing that gifted people can do is to be in activities made for the gifted like (olympiads competitions etc..) This way you can learn how to work hard and still be sure that you're gifted.

So true Jin. Great perspective. Thanks again for your advice via instagram the other day too. You’re hard work has started to make a loyal audience base 🤝🏽

I am a teenager who is kinda in the same spot. I never really had to try very hard in school, but now I have to take exams and I’m finding it difficult to find motivation to try. Some part of me just expects me to ace every exam, but it is clear that is not the case. Thanks for this video man, good job.

I spent my 20s in a major depressive spiral, and dug my way out through work. In many ways I'm still digging my way out, and I'm trying to undo the things I did in that place, and there's many mistakes I never wish to kake again. I'm spending my 30s living down my past and building my future.

I was a gifted kid, and one of the things I did was pick up difficult hobbies and do stuff at an advanced level so I could actually get a challenge. That really helped me later on in life, forcing myself to face challenges and try my best was one of the biggest helps to me.

Thank you for this. I've always been labeled as 'the smart kid' for years, and whenever I underperform my confidence decreases. For my parents, trying my best is never enough. You're either a 100% or a fail. I can't keep up anymore. I'm a horrible procrastinator. Sometimes I want to be average. How can I fix my procrastination?

I was a gifted kid but also have imposter syndrome so I end up working hard so "people don't find out I'm actually dumb"

This is exactly why programs for gifted students are important. Make them face challenges, surround them with other "gifted" kids, and suddenly no one is gifted. Everyone has to challenge themselves & learn how to study alongside others

Hilary Hahn said it best, and this is paraphrasing here, "No matter how talented you are, everyone will need to practice eventually." Such a great quote to live by.

It's amazing that I'm finding your channel at this point in my life, I experience this multiple hobby thing, but mine is reallly chronic. It has gotten to a point that after I have done a lot of "work" trying a lot of things, I would just sit and ask myself, what have I achieved? the answer - absolutely nothing. Its really depressing because I just keep ingesting words but not turning them into info as other kids who have actually learnt how to do this autopilot do. The worst part is the comparison to others, really really painful. Hopefully I can grow out of this phase of my life.

I was dumped in the gifted program too but I struggle just as much in university as I did in high school. This is probably because I learned the exact lesson of this video pretty early on. My gifted test scores were all average, and the only thing which put me over the threshold was my memory. Learned pretty early on that memorizing does not mean that you can APPLY the concepts, so the “gifted kid” spiral didn’t hit as hard for me as it did for some of my other friends in university.

For me, I started to struggle in high school but my narrative changed slowly from, "I'm superior I will reign over these mortals" to "Fuck life I can't do shit and everyone is just built different, I will never accomplish anything and my brain is just filled up to the brim, why even try" so definitely take your time and don't go to extremes but really focus on accepting your errors and working towards a better self, don't let the "I just didn't try" narrative to take over because then you'll be filled with disappointment. I thank you for the video because it made me realize I've been doing things wrong and thanks for putting a little hope in my dumbass soul. (I really relate to the hobbies part, got stuck at some point and gave up so this hits home)

If I ever have kids, I will constantly force them to go above and beyond to earn my approval, and rarely, if ever, compliment them. They're gonna hate my guts but they're also going to be very successful in their adult lives :)

this is literally what i am writing my college application essay about. thank you

It's my first time seeing your video. great efforts. I feel so nice after seeing a video like this and knowing I am not alone. You are right i should start treating myself in a normal way. THANK YOU!!!

Yep, I literally throw away my pride of being the "smart" child. Now, I'm a struggling adult and refused to give up. Because, nowadays I called hardships as "Life happens".

This video really ressonance a lot. Now I'm on my way to fixing myself, without throw the "smart gifted kids". So both my current self and my old self can combine their power together.

me not being a "gifted kid" but still messing up my 20s

i was like this until medical school started. Honestly first year was kinda easy because we had sooo much time to study in our hands but this year (2nd year in medical school) things didnt go too well. i failed 2 exams already because i didnt work as hard the other people. but i'm trying my best this time and im hoping for the best. my exam is this thursday, pray for me 🤲

I have the same problem, but it's not bound to any kind of label. I've never been called anything like a gifted kid or even just smart, neither have I considered myself special on my own. Still, _everything_ was effortless for me as a kid, not just school or programming, but even social interactions. So, when I started to encounter my first challenges in life I was immediately giving up. Currently, I'm working to fix that.

i needed this video. i’ve been really struggling with finding motivation and thinking i should get stuff easy. university is hard, and you really need to put in the work, which we’re not used to doing. you helped me change my mindset, i feel motivated to work more now. thank you

i know you mentioned why you quit optometry school in your other videos, but I was wondering what you hate about it the most? I'm currently thinking of attending waterloo (even though its competitive) for optometry school and would like some of your insight on it

This is always an interesting phenomenon, I was never a “gifted” kid and didn’t learn subjects easily, so throughout HS I would be studying for hours to get good grades. Being honor roll and in a merit program It was crazy seeing some of my peers sort of just whimsically coast on by with excellent grades just on what seemed like pure intuition or talent or something. Those guys didn’t study particularly hard and it did always surprise me. As a result learning about that giant brick wall gifted kids tend to slam into once they’re adults came as a big shock

I was a gifted kid growing up, and I’m now a young 20something. I’m finally, FINALLY shedding the gifted kid identity, but it’s taking a lot of humbling. The first was when I joined programming competitions in college, and no matter how hard I focused, I always lost completely and utterly to every single person who practiced even a little bit. No matter how much better I was than them when they started. That was the first moment when I really began to understand that I’m nothing special. Unique and valued as a person yeah, like all people are and should be, but not special - not more valuable than someone else. Another, more recent time was in one of my hobbies. I recently started rock climbing. And just like in school, I have some natural talent for it. In just 2-3 months I went from struggling on 5.8s to flashing 5.11s. I say that not to brag, but to set up where I was when I was humbled. It’s important that I was doing well almost effortlessly, before being shown how normal I am. One day when I came into the gym, I was having a bad day. I saw a bunch of tourists goofing around somewhat disrespectfully, so, in a moment of weakness I decided to one up them. They were trying to make a jump that I thought was easy. I sauntered over, and lo and behold, I miss and Im left staring at the ceiling. After they leave, I go back and try it again, and again, and again, and eventually I get it. My talent didn’t get me the jump, practice did. I’m not all that. It helped me a lot in that specific hobby, but also in life too. I learned to think of myself not as a good climber, or as a talented climber, but as someone who loves climbing. Centering that part of my identity around enjoyment rather than skill makes even failure fun. Because it’s no longer failure. I’m working on spreading that perspective to the rest of my life

Really loved this video Jin. I considered myself gifted for the past 13 years of my life and now (this year)I am struggling. I am lagging behind my peers at school. At first, I used to cheer myself up with excuses like "Oh! I didn't try that's why" but the real problem lay in my ego and mindset. You gave me a lot of motivation and I am looking forward to working harder than ever from tomorrow. Wish me, man!

Hardwork beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. This video emphasizes what happens when talent works hard. No level of hardwork from a regular individual would compare.

As a Rick and Morty viewer, I can relate to this.

This video actually taught me there are actually two camps: the gifted kids that actually believe in their gifts, versus the camp of gifted kids that continue to believe they aren't good enough, which is the reason they are gifted. Their 'gift' is more like an innate inadequacy function that keeps them from ever feeling enough, which also limits them. This video doesn't work for those people.

I am rewatching this after knowing I screwed my chances of getting into med school. I did try, gave it my all but still I couldn't . From being a gifted, smart kid to a unimpressible burnt out 20 year old, the journey has been difficult. I disappointed my dad big time and I disappointed myself too. As a kid who gained validation from being academically excellent, I knew this day would someday come but didn't expect it to be so soon. I'll be turning 21 when the autumn comes, with nothing left for me to look forward to. I gave up all my interests, hobbies just so I could make my parents "PROUD" thought that if two people can be happy out of my misery, why not? But all that amounted to nothing, absolutely nothing. I don't intend on staying this way, I've learned my lesson now I will be doing things my own way and what I want. I will let myself be a disappointment in the eyes of everyone, I don't care anymore. Even if this means that I need to stay away from my dad and what I used to call "home". I love my family I really do but I hate being home. I am tired of feeling miserable all the time. To everyone out there who are struggling, stay strong. You don't need to be gifted, excellent and all those fancy words to feel worthy of love. You can give yourself the love that you need and do what you want. Life isn't easy and life is definitely not fair but I will give myself a chance and see where it takes me. From now on, I will be working on myself and just focus on my happiness.

I don’t know why this came up in my feed and now I feel attacked 🙈 Also kinda crazy how many people in your friends group eventually in their 20s get diagnosed with a bunch of neurodivergent conditions, be it adhd or autism or something else. Totally not speaking from experience 😅

Thank you for putting this into words. My "giftedness" has always been a detriment to my personal growth, since I learn initial skills fast and then give up when I actually have to try. In the later stages of realizing I had this mindset I started feeling bad for myself and how "unlucky" I was for having been gifted, hence not having learned to work hard. And then I realized that was also a bad mindset to have, but it took quite a while to fix it. I'm doing quite better now after self-reflecting as well. It's all just a mental battle!

I've never been more accurately called out in my entire life This made me tear up a bit , thank you I really needed it The podiums we put ourselves on top of are in reality terrible prisons

Thank you so much. Much needed message. You exactly pointed everything out about how I feel and where the problem lies.

What helped me was thinking that instead of "I'm so smart" was "I'm a kind, disciplined person who loves to learn and sometimes, I learn to do things wrong, and i can always learn to do better. Other people may be stronger, wiser or smarter than I am, but that doesn't make them better than me, nor am I better than them." I think we should treat ourselves with kindness, as long as we always get up.

I'm 30 and all he said are so true to me. I realized it recently that this mindset is the root cause slowing my success. Focus on what you can achieve instead of who you are.

Thanks for making the video so concise and not dragging it out for 10+ minutes

Thank you for sharing your experience, not having the need to put any effort in studying when i was young I am now struggling to keep up in college and started being discouraged and having a lot of absenteeism. I m trying to change myself little by little, it's encouraging and inspiring to hear people who have gone through the same things.

You really don't know how blessed I am that this video showed up in my recommendations. I'm struggling through university right now, bombing assignments and missing due dates because I keep telling myself that "I could do if I really tried." Reality is, I wasn't trying because I really was afraid. So thank you 😭 knowing others have got through what I'm going through is really encouraging!

in med school rn and this hit home. ive always been the smart kid and things naturally came easier to me. wasnt until a recent exam, where everyone including the kids who i believed weren't that smart, did well. i realized i really need to work. im a hard worker so putting in the effort isnt a problem. i just don't know how to do things differently when i get stuck. i am working on it tho. allowing myself to fail. not making any excuses either. im giving the exam again and hopefully it goes well this time. thanks for the vid. lovely reminder.

Thanks to pass the message. I have actually gone through the same reasoning and. Yes it's good to feel that you go forward again after some years of failing and giving up, you feel less and less gifted but it is much more rewarding as time goes by and you still keep your talent, but it's not your main "source" of success and you will feel proud of yourself of what you have achieved at the end. So keep struggling it's worth it.

This is advice that I definitely need, and decent timing too. In the past year, I’ve struggled at math (calc) for the the first time and man it is not fun. I did exactly that and just dismissed it as “could easily do it if I tried.” I’ve heard this kind of talk before, but this is in a very effective and concise form. Thanks!

Great video Jin! Thanks for sharing this relatable insight. 🙏

Thank you for this, I’m in the middle of this mindset shift and it doesn’t happen overnight! I just remind myself of these very fundamental truths (which, for being supposedly so smart, we have overlooked) and I’m on the path to being a hard worker!

Thank you so much for this video, so well narrated and edited

I feel like this resonated with me in a way I wasn't entirely prepared for. After looking at myself through a lens of criticism, I've learned to focus on the things I want to do but can't yet, and understand that I will get there with time and effort. In an attempt to further humble myself, I have started looking to surround myself with people I see as more "savvy" or "capable" than I am. This helps me get my foot in the door with those hard projects where I don't know how or where to start; and would otherwise give up. Instead, I look at what these other people have done and take inspiration. Even ask for help sometimes. And more importantly, I'm in an environment where I can't really label myself as talented seeing as everyone else is better than me at at least one thing. Thanks for this.

man thanks for this vid... it really resonated with me and its so high quality. subscribing

You are so good, I'm so grateful for this, man.❤

Damn, I really needed this. Thank you Jin, you deserve many more viewers for the quality of this succinct video.

Being a gifted kid has made me lazy and complacent. I procrastinate far more than I used to, knowing that I'll get everything done to substandard quality eventually. Prioritising discipline over talent is helping me, but I still have a long way to go.

One of the best things that I ever did was decide to start going to the gym. It was a completely random decision that I made because I thought it would help me get more girls lol but it taught me the valueof hard work. You will get nowhere in the gym if you do not put in the work, no matter how "gifted" you are. My body became the thing I was most proud of, even though I was top of my class in school and my physique was really nothing to write home about, but it was something that I had to really grind for, unlike my grades. It definately helped me going into university because when the work started to get really difficult for me I started applying my mentality from the gym into my uni work

Thank you for making this into a 3 minute video instead of stretching it out to 30 like just about every other ive seen. Very good message told succinctly

I am so thankful to all the artists I've met over the years that inspired me to pick up drawing myself and motivated me to keep going. The fulfilling struggle of making art is a humbling experience because it's one of the hobbies where you can see both flaws and progress very easily. There's still a bit of that gifted curse and I see it pop up every now and then but art really taught me how to struggle correctly and I don't know where I'd be rn without it

"I could have done it if I tried" pretty much became my life story. It's time to put the actual work in, and finally improve.

Love your video dude! This really inspired me to not give up 🤩