Have you ever enrolled in a course that you didn’t finish?

I know I have. With online courses, it’s especially easy. It goes along with the books I’ve purchased but never read and the exercise equipment I used once. You just kind of…move on.

Sometimes, dropping out is no big deal. But other times, the results are heartbreaking. Failing to complete high school can limit a person’s job prospects dramatically, and failing to stick to a doctor-recommended diet and exercise regimen can mean the difference between a long, healthy life and a short and miserable one.

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During my career as a music teacher, I would usually demonstrate things very slowly, at a tempo that my student could match. However, sometimes, I would demonstrate a passage at speed (meaning, at the performance tempo) so that they could hear how it would eventually sound.

When I did this, my student would often forget about the “eventually” part. It sounded cool, and they wanted to try. They would attempt to replicate it at the same tempo, with poor results. If it didn’t work, they would try again several times in quick succession, leading to a stuttery, messy sound.

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A friend of mine was struggling with a new skill.

She confessed that she was “not really cut out for it.”

Regardless of her actual ability, this statement limited her results. It was a convenient place to hide.

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One of the most important lessons I learned from Karen Pryor’s amazing Don’t Shoot the Dog! The New Art of Teaching and Training is that operant conditioning can be humane — so humane that you can use it successfully on yourself. In doing so, you can improve your results and more reliably engage your powers of self-discipline and follow-through.

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Talent is convenient.

It’s undeniably helpful to have early promise or natural aptitude in a particular area. We tend to enjoy things we’re good at. If you are naturally good at something, you will stick with it all the way to mastery.

However, the flip side concerns me more. If you are not naturally good at something that you really want to master, I urge you to stick with it anyway. Sooner or later, with consistent effort over time, some aspect of it will click. When you evaluate things several weeks, months, or years later, you may even find that your results are indistinguishable from the “talented” person.

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