Truth be told, I have very little interest in math for math’s sake.
However, I am interested in gaming, cars, and electronics. Now, can you tell me what effect switching from a 175/60R15 tire to a 185/55R15 tire will have on the effective final drive ratio? Unless you are a car nut, you won’t care, but more importantly, if you don’t have strong math skills, you won’t be able to figure it out. By the same token, if you don’t know probabilities well enough to know and understand the bell-curve of three six-sided dice (3d6) then you won’t know when it may or may not be worth busting your ass to get a +1 modifier to your effective skill in GURPS.
But even without being a geek, math can help you out on many jobs and in every day life. Is Pepsi being on a “buy two 12-packs, get two free” sale a better deal at $6.49 per 12-pack than Costco’s normal price of $9.87 for a 36-pack? Without good math skills, you won’t know, and may waste money. I like saving money, and I work as a machinist (a math-intensive job at times) so I have motivations to know math that don’t have anything to do with my geeky hobbies. Many real-life connections. Many motivations.
So @mattbrowne is entirely correct; once you find motivation, it will somehow all “click” and become easier.