How we should expect students to perform: Self-fulfilling prophecy in the classroom

I am guilty of proclaiming to the world, "Oh, am just not a math person." I have convinced myself that my strongest abilities lie in the arts, particularly Language Arts--so here I am pursuing a career where I can teach this thing I love. So many times in high school, I have tried to rationalize that I am just not a great math student. Even when I was academically successful in the classroom, I still had this looming revelation in my head: I can't do math. I don't know where this came from, but the thought became even more prevalent as I entered college. Now, I am in my third year, recently learned I need one more math class, and am dreading taking college algebra or calculus...whatever it is. I don't want to do it. At this point, I am almost certain that I will not do well in the class.

I am not alone in this. I am not the only kid to say "I'm not a ______ person." But I wonder is it true that some people are just not "math people," or "science people," or "music people"? Perhaps by some extent, there may be genetic predisposition that allows certain skills to come more easily for others; but is this an excuse to not perform well in any subject area?

This article was posted by a friend at Texas A&M studying to be a math teacher. The article says that "For high school math, inborn talent is just much less important than hard work, preparation, and self-confidence." It seems as though when students are approached with a difficult task, the immediate response is to give up. Students drop all confidence and try to avoid tackling a task that seems uninteresting or challenging. 

It outlines this frustrating pattern:

1. Different kids with different levels of preparation come into a math class. Some of these kids have parents who have drilled them on math from a young age, while others never had that kind of parental input.
2. On the first few tests, the well-prepared kids get perfect scores, while the unprepared kids get only what they could figure out by winging it—maybe 80 or 85%, a solid B.
3. The unprepared kids, not realizing that the top scorers were well-prepared, assume that genetic ability was what determined the performance differences. Deciding that they “just aren’t math people,” they don’t try hard in future classes, and fall further behind.
4. The well-prepared kids, not realizing that the B students were simply unprepared, assume that they are “math people,” and work hard in the future, cementing their advantage.

I think this is something to consider as we continue taking classes, and eventually teach them. What are we telling ourselves that prevents our own progress? And can we stop this behavior in students so that they, too, can be successful?