Learning to Play Guitar - Motivation

A little over a year ago, after taking a decade+ hiatus, I started playing guitar again.  During my initial stint, which started in college, I was diligent about taking lessons and played for about 4 years before relegating my guitar to storage.

I often heard or read that I needed to practice 1 hour a day in order to come close to being an expert within any relatively short timeframe.  As a result, I'd freak out that I either didn't have that kind of time or enough motivation to play that long and simply not practice.  I started dreading something that should have provided me joy, simply because I bought into the conventional wisdom over what I should be doing when learning an instrument.

Fast forward to 2016 when I picked up a guitar in earnest again.  This time, I told myself that I'd carve out 15 minutes a day to play.  If I wanted to play longer, then fine, I could play longer, but I should feel like I accomplished my goal for the day if I hit that 15 minute mark.  I should also state that I had no further expectations of becoming an expert guitarist or making my living in music.  I simply wanted to play songs, improvise a little, and, eventually, write a little music.

As expected, by keeping the goal attainable, I've actually put in more time and effort than I require of myself - not because I feel it's mandatory, but because I usually get caught up in the moment or enjoy playing enough now to go back and practice more than just once a day.

On the occasions when I don't feel like practicing, it's easy enough to psych myself up enough to say - just run scales for 15 minutes or play through a few simple chord changes to hit the daily goal.  I don't need to lie to myself and say, "tonight, I'm going to block off 60 minutes to put in good hard practice time."  I only need to keep myself occupied for 15 minutes.  Often, when I start with that attitude, I wind up playing longer than anticipated and finding some little musical puzzle to solve that will sustain me for a few days further.  And then, truthfully, some days I look at the clock constantly waiting for the 15 minutes to be over, so I can check off my practice time for the day.  But, even on those days, I still get my practice time in for the day and go just that much further in making myself a better guitarist.