Somebody keeps moving the goalpost!

Hi guys,

Does it seem to you that you're truly never truly satisfied with your playing etc? That you have never arrived? I know playing guitar is a journey but darn it feels like a LONG journey sometimes. Maybe I'm just never happy due to some deep psychological reasons. That goalpost keeps moving farther away but I know it's me who keeps moving it!

How about you? Have you ever felt satisfied? Like you have finally arrived at the place you wished you'd be? Did that feeling last?

[Dirk Hofman]

I think that's the beauty of it! Always more to learn. Life's a journey, not a destination, or so it's said.

[jschmitz54]

Psychological problems aside. I look at it like golf. It can only be played, there’s no time limit and you can’t win or lose, you can do better or worse but the fun is in the challenge. It’s the peace and tranquillity it offers me and someday I hope to be accomplished enough to get in the zone.
However I have seen golfers who kind of blow up so perhaps being careful with your emotional response is warranted. Tick,tick,tick!

[rick-slo]

I always feel I get out of it what I put into it, if not a bit more. No complaints.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

So what happens after you've 'arrived'?

[SongwriterFan]

I think Tracy Lawrence already sang this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-hEzfsam1g

[Rev Roy]

I get moments of satisfaction...but they flash by as frustration slips back in. I didn’t start playing until I retired seven years ago. Play for an hour or two every day. But progress is spotty and slower than I’d like. Still, I’m having a blast. And it’s my all-consuming retirement hobby. The key to happiness for a hobbyist hack like me is realistic expectations. If I occasionally make the dog smile I chalk it us as a win.

[KevinH]

I look at it as a never-ending series of arrivals. I'll hear something and think I'd love to be able to play. Then maybe a month or two later I'm there, and it's on to the next one. There are definitely times I feel stuck, but they usually go away.

[llew]

I think there's always room for improvement. I tend to bookmark guitar related websites that should be helpful in the journey and rarely go back to them. I find I get most discouraged playing the same songs over and over and am happiest when I learn or am in the process of learning something new.

[bunnyman]

Thank god that guitars are not Formula 1 cars...otherwise I would be dead and buried long ago given my skills. I have been through teachers, online lessons, theory classes, guitar camp, etc etc. As a college athlete I learned long ago that perfection is unattainable. Practice and a thick skin to criticism are the only goals and antidotes to the land of suck

Hang in there. If you have a recording from 10 yrs ago and one from recent times, I bet you would be surprised at the improvement

[Benjo]

There's no such thing as arriving, in life or in guitar playing.

[Tnfiddler]

I just measure it in tiny little steps! One day, something that I couldn’t do, happens and I always think, “Wow! Where’d that come from”!! I notice that every time I commit more time to practice, those things happen more often.

[rokdog49]

I have days where I surpass my own expectations as a player and days where I feel like I can’t play at all.
...reminds me of Golf.

[Shubid]

What is your current goalpost and what was your last? Maybe you are not quite clear what your goals are. Write them down and keep them as precise as possible.
You say you keep moving the goalpost and there is nothing wrong with that, but if you move it before you reach it, you will never experience the satisfaction of reaching a goal.
It's like reading a book: don't start on chapter 5 until you have finished chapter 4.

[Tannin]

Originally Posted by Brooklyn Bob

So what happens after you've 'arrived'?

They put you in a wooden box and bury it.

Keep on travelling, getting better and better. There is no "arrive". It's the journey that never ends until it's over. Enjoy it all the way.