Potential

What's the difference between being able to do something and not doing it, and not being able to do something at all?

The obvious difference is that with the former there is the potential of being able to do that something whereas the latter indicates that the opportunity/option was never there to begin with. However, if you really think about it, if you don't do it, what's to say that you really can? I mean aside for the obvious mundane every day things, let's take something more difficult. Getting into law school. Graduating from med school. Becoming good at surfing. Becoming really good at an instrument. Learning a new language. The list goes on. I'm talking about the things that require patience and diligence. The things that you need to work on every day without rest. More and more I realize that in the world of adults, there are many "I can do that, I just don't do it"s and instead of the resigned admitting of "I just can't do it"s. This comes not because of a certain lack in ability as much as a matter of a lack of focus, concentration, patience and the diligence to keep at something. Isn't that essentially what separates the genius/talented from the common population?

I mean there's that stupid quote - something about 1% genius and 99% hard work and I think that hard work is in and of itself a kind of genius or at least a really hard-to-come-by talent.

Is it because it's something that I lack that I see it as valuable?

At any rate, now I think that's the way I'm going to view it. If I say I can do it, I had better prove it. Perhaps it's an age thing, but I think that it's more because I see it happen a lot. And before I would accept it as a truth, but if it doesn't really happen, it isn't, is it? Though on the flip side, I don't think I should judge others for lacking this ability, simply because some people really do see it as a truth - they can do it, they can see themselves doing it, they just don't. There are a multitude of reasons that people don't do things that they could do (and they are very logical reasons too) so in the end, I suppose it really just applies to me.

I wonder if I have it in me to become considerably better at viola. Hm.