My family was educated in the humanties, but terrible at math. I think they believed the same as you did, especially my father. I actually think the thing that taught me that you can get better at something through hard work and prtactice was running cross country and track in high school. Other sports can do that too, but I think that success in competitive running is more purely based on what you put into it. Math was not that easy for me and I struggled at it many times along the way, but when I knew what I was doing, I liked it better than my other classes. That is probably why I stuck with it.