Bad Feeling Options

[Gertrude]

Some days I feel like I want to quit playing and that my life will be a lot less complicated without the hard work in trying to make the time for practice.

How did others get around this?

[Misterioso]

Some days I feel like I want to quit playing and that my life will be a lot less complicated without the hard work in trying to make the time for practice.

I don't think I've ever felt like quitting playing, but I do find it hard to find time to do the amount of practice that I think is realistic / necessary. Then, when I don't manage it, I am quite capable of beating myself up and giving myself a very hard time! So I understand where you are coming from.

Recently, it's been made easier for me (or harder, depending on one's viewpoint) as I actually can't play my violin at the moment (first instrument), and other instruments only for a certain length of time, due to joint problems, so practice time has been dramatically cut, and it's pushing me into making some hard decisions just now. That's beside the point, really, but what I meant to say is that you realise how much you want to do it when you can't any more. So it's a convoluted way of saying that if you did quit, I think it's very likely that you would regret it before long.

You've had some good advice already, so I will only add the obvious - and that is that you can only do what you can do, and you shouldn't feel guilty about what you cannot do, or don't have time for. And for now - just make sure that what you do do is fun.