Obviously, I am no psychologist, I am a music teacher, but here is what I have figured out from a few decades of teaching. There are some people that will give you a whole lot of reasons, seemingly sound reasons, why you should not learn to play the piano.
The first reason why some people are actively discouraging, is because they are mean and miserable and would rather see miserable people around them. They literally hate seeing people happy and they will do what it takes to make sure that others around them are equally miserable. Fortunately, these people are few and far between, but make no mistake – they do exist.
The next reason that comes to mind is that there is a small proportion of people that are just frankly cynical. These people would rather take the so-called safe route of doubting achievement, rather than being optimistic about your success and looking foolish later on because you didn’t succeed. These people don’t ever want to look foolish, even just a little bit, so they would rather be cynical and even discouraging, so that they can be proven correct.
There are some people that are discouraging, but think they are doing you a service by discouraging you, because they don’t want to see you dissappointed. Their heart might be in the right place, but what these people don’t understand is that if you live your life like this, you are robbing people of opportunity for happiness, contentment and joy. Sometimes pople have to take risks in order to find things that make them happy.
Unfortunately there are a number of people that don’t want you to try to learn to play the piano, because if you do and are successful at learning, then it will be a regular reminder that there is something that they have always wanted to have a go at, but have chosen not to. For this person, it might be that they too, have always wanted to learn to play the piano, or another instrument. It could be something entirely different. Nevertheless, these people will continuously discourage you, because they can’t stand the discomfort in themselves, that is highlighted by you learning to play the piano.
The list here is by no means complete – it is just merely my thoughts and observations that I have formed over the years. As I said in the beginning, I am no psychologist. By creating this list, I hope it helps in highlighting someone who may be discouraging you. At the end of the day though, these other people that discourage have made their choices and that is their problem. Don’t let it become your problem. If you choose to want to learn to play the piano (or anything else) then go for it.