Have you tried doing nothing over a long time? I'm not a smart person, and it felt bad. At first its feels great, Sitting down at couch, playing video games, eating and drinking what you want.

Few weeks pass, and you became bored and un-stimulated. You start to crave novelty, and curiosity. You pick up a book, you watch educational videos and so forth. Except its self directed. You become addicted, to some activities because your doing it for internal values, not external pressures. This is how I mastered subjects. This is also the point when a teacher becomes truly useful, because they will working with you to feed YOUR curiosity rather than following a set standard.

Most people do this.