What an irritating phrase.
Anyone who has studied an instrument to an intermediate level or higher will recognise the following scenario.
Your music lesson is today. You have not practised this week. Needless to say, you are not feeling great.
But, despite all odds, you have an excellent lesson. Your teacher commends you on how hard you have been working, and might even go so far as to say keep doing exactly what you have been doing.
Now, if you’re comfortable with your teacher, you might tell them the truth.
But most of us didn’t do that. We said nothing, nodded, and thanked our lucky stars.
For anyone who pays close attention this blog, you will have noticed that I haven’t posted anything for almost two months. The simple reason for that is that I took time off, because I needed to. Life was too busy and I didn’t have time to write.
When I first started this blog, I thought I needed to post every single week, without exception. That if I didn’t, I was a failure.
But consistency is not a short term project.
The reason why we succeeded in our music lessons was not dumb luck. It was the result of previous work, that became into fruition when we rested.
Nowadays, even if I haven’t posted anything, I still don’t go a week without at least one person stumbling across something I’ve written. I don’t really know how, and it’s not as though it’s a roaring success, but my previous work is paying off.
All I really have to say, is that we need to remove the pressure we put on ourselves. Not all your projects will succeed, not all of them will succeed straight away, and some of them will succeed when you had given up on them.
Keep doing what you love, keep enjoying it, keep working hard, and see where it takes you. And if you need a break, take it. It can’t take away the work you’ve already done. You are already consistent – trust yourself.
Happy creating!
Jena Ren, 2023
Jena Ren 
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