I’m really struggling to understand a book I’m trying to read at the moment.  After several days it’s not getting any easier and I found myself wondering about this.  An interesting thing then occurred.

I turned to one of my favourite writers with whom I don’t have these kinds of problem and am usually straight onto their wavelength … and I struggled to focus on what he was writing about.

This is a case of priming and there’s a lot of it about.

I’d noticed that by page 54 I was still struggling with topic of the first book and this set me up to struggle with the second.

I had to interrupt this thinking, tell myself what was happening, remember I’m not completely inept* at grasping the meaning of something, and started over.

This more commonly happens when we look at what others are able to do and don’t try to do something with our own talents and passions.  The thing is, we can admire the skill and aptitude of others without being primed into giving up on what we can do – which may well be something others are not able to do or are not interested in doing: you can develop this in a masterful way.

I just thought to share this today in case you were in danger of discounting the amazing thing you can do.

(*Almost but not quite.)