I agree with you wholeheartedly. I really loved your evaluation on “wanting” and “deciding”. Thank you so much for your shoutout! I appreciate it. Honestly, I feel like that’s kind of what I’ve been doing with my Instagram stories. While I do want it to be a productive day, when I say it’s going to be a productive day, I feel more motivated to get more done.
For someone like me, my little bragging log helps me feel better about myself when I get into one of my more negative sides. With it, I realize I’ve been doing a lot more than I have been giving myself credit for. Like just yesterday I think I practiced 4+ hours and even wrote an original riff that I’m hoping to share sometime very soon once I get it honed to where I’m happy. And now my wrist and fingers feel like they’re falling off. I’ve never sat that long all at once and just played around.
To the person reading this, it’s all about you. Do what makes you happy and makes you feel amazing about yourself. Choose goals for yourself either short term or long, it’s up to you, but don’t set something that will be counterproductive for you. Goals work for some people and not for others. For me, it’s my bragging log and people who are kind enough to comment. (Usually, I’ll take a screenshot of comments that I really like and that make me feel good.) I have long term goals, but I feel my log helps me keep track of what I’m doing each day to get there and I also have shorter goals for each week. This is just what works for me. You do not have to play guitar every day. Sometimes with work schedules it can be hard to. With my log, I also keep track of how much I work because I enjoy working on my job. Even that helps me feel better about myself because I’m keeping track of just all I’m doing and it was still productive.
And if you need to take a break? Do it. Do not burn yourself out and run yourself into the dirt. Only you know when you’re tired, physically or otherwise. I have my days where it’s amazing I just even get out of bed. On those days, that’s when I take out my log and read it so I’m not flogging my own ass and literally beating myself into pulp inside my own head. I used to push myself face first into the dirt literally to where I got tired of playing. Guitar should be fun and a release for you. As Jak was saying, it isn’t a chore and make sure to take care of yourself. Taking care of yourself should always come first. Never feel bad for loving yourself. I’ve had to take a break before. Especially with last year being one of the toughest times of my life. At times, I could just not function and even find the motivation. Trying to play would make me hurt internally. I’m sure everyone needs and will take a break at some point. You’ve come this far, sincere congratulations.
You will get to where you want to be. Don’t worry.
