What drives you to play music? What makes it worth it?

I saw a post by a musician today lamenting how OP felt worthless with music, that they spent a lot of time and effort on practicing and public gigs only to get negative feedback, and in general just didn’t feel like they were getting anywhere or that music had a place for them.

I could empathize with these feelings a lot so I wanted to share my thoughts. I think it’s common when someone wants music to be so much more than just a hobby that they crave a lot of external validation and approval as a measure of success. I’m not the musician I want to be yet, but wanting to be a great musician just for my own enjoyment and accepting anything else as extra is really key for me and I hope others see things that way no matter what the passion is. Seeing life as a journey, not a competitive race for success. 

A good friend recently gave me a quote by Jack Kornfield that I very much relate to with my desire to be great at my passions/interests and not finding myself where I want to be-

“Most fundamentally these desires are then separated into painful desire and skillful desire, both aspects stemming from a neutral energy called the Will to Do. Painful desire involves greed, grasping, inadequacy, addiction, and longing. Healthy desire is born of this same Will to Do but directed by love, vitality, compassion, creativity, and wisdom. With the development of loving awareness, we begin to distinguish unhealthy desire from skillful motivation. We can sense which states are free from unhealthy desire and enjoy a more spontaneous and natural way of being without struggle or ambition. When we are no longer as caught by unhealthy desires, our understanding grows, and both healthy passion and compassion will more naturally direct our life.” – Jack Kornfield “Naming the Wanted Mind”