Tom HappVerified account

What happened to me was I was told since I was like 4 that I was an exceptional, talented child. I took it for granted, thinking everything I did, even just breathing, was going to be good and perfect and worthy of praise. Going to high school and not having to study because of-

-my good memory and general lack further sabotages me, because I never learnt discipline or structure. I would read the things five minutes before a test and ace it pretty easily. Sadly, as soon as I went to art school, where I have no way to avoid the hours or work that drawing-

-requires, I fell into a pit of fear and got terrified. Because my first, half-assed attempt got me nowhere. And I had to deal with being average between my peers, not in the top three. So something in my mind tells me I shouldn't do it, because I can't. I will not be able to.

That sounds very plausible and also a difficult problem to solve... like how can someone tell whether they have unrealistic expectations if their only prior experience is of success? Should somebody have intervened and made stuff artificially more challenging?

I believe what could have helped me was letting me fail without making it into this epocal event. I remember that when I tried something new such as sports out of curiosity and finding I didn't like them, my family would shame me for having given up.

I was already trapped in this cycle of wanting to be perfect immediately, so I would give up because it costed me work and fatigue I didn't want to spent. But my parents making it such a shameful deal further proved me that error is not possible in this my equation.