A transition to understand

The altitude one scales in life is propelled by aptitude and sustained by attitude. Aspiration, desire and commitment are easy to say, but difficult to practice, as it requires tremendous amount of self-discipline. I have been observing that children, in general, have this remarkable character of being disciplined, and can learn things at a faster rate than adults. In recent days, two things have caught my attention in the context of the above discussion:

1) The SUPER30 organization in Patna, which hunts for 30 meritorious talents from among the economically backward sections of the society and shapes them for India's most hyped-up examination of IIT-JEE. In the last seven years, it seems it has produced hundreds of IITians from extremely poor background. Hats off to Anand Kumar who is running this organization, and hats off to the students from poor background who are cracking the JEE. Although, I don’t endorse these rat-race examinations, I admire people who take up the challenge to write this examination and get through it successfully. It’s a hard task, I must admit. If you observe many students coming out of this organization, they are extremely hard working with a sustained frame of mind to achieve a goal. Indeed, they inspire me.

2) The other thing in the same context is the reality-shows on television that showcases talent of Indian children. Some children do remarkable things (including dance, singing etc.). Probably, parents' encouragement is vital in this, but children put up a show with an air of enthusiasm, confidence and commitment, which one can hardly see in the grownups.

I have not yet found an answer to the following questions:

Is it difficult to learn something new as you grow older or is it just a matter of attitude?What is really happening to the attitude when there is a transition from adolescence to adulthood?

Just think about a situation when adults start working as well as they would have done during their childhood, that can make a lot of difference. maybe it is time for us to grow our minds younger, perhaps, like the intellectual case of Benjamin Button.