It also helps not to tell yourself "I suck at math", that's a very common self-fulfilling prophecy.
I think when people say they suck at math what they mean is; I find math homework extremely boring and unrewarding. Which perpetuates sucking at math and only compounds. Then things get worse as modern society works better for the individual when one does not totally suck a math.
Kinda like, I suck at piano because I find practicing the piano boring and unrewarding, but without the ramifications of sucking at math.
Wholeheartedly agree, and this applies much more broadly than math.
Once you've built the mental fence, breaking it down is a giant PITA.
But one doesn't really get to ignore math in life because of money. You'll still need to figure some things out. I can say I'm a poor painter so I'm just going to ignore that and things will be fine. The cost of ignoring math can be quite high.
I absolutely despise grinding and drilling uncontexualized and contrived problems and have never been able to maintain something stuff like that for very long. Which of course becomes problematic at I find myself interested in problems that require a decent grasp on some math.
Unless you're like me as a kid, you don't look around and start counting, adding, and multiplying based on the objects or scenes that you see, and "thinking in numbers". Thus the need for grinding, you need some math fluency (which takes practice to develop and maintain, like any other domain) before you can move on to more advanced topics (at least easily). If you lack fluency, even at a low level, then you have to do a refresher every time you try and get to something moderately advanced. Which is frustrating, at least, if not demotivating to the point of causing most people to stop. The more fluent you are, the easier it is to pick up an arbitrary advanced topic (at least to read, if not to apply or extend).