What motivates me the most is that playing is something that is uniquely mine.  Everything I learn by playing (and practice until my fingers are sore and my arm aches) makes me a better player.  Which again is something that is unique to me.

Is it enjoyable to play?  Yes.  Especially when I get it right.  Is it frustrating?  Absolutely, sometimes even when I get it right.  What it isn't, is dealing with others over things they want but which exclude me except as the way they get what they want while they take all the glory and praise.

That's not what this is about.  Playing is my achievement.  My accomplishment.  I'm a winner because I got up off the couch and did it.  It's not a team effort and when I succeed it's because of me.  Ditto for when I fail.  There is no "perspective."  No "good enough."  It's either succeed or fail and it's all on me.

My triumphs are worth something to me.  To keep that going I will willingly pick up my violin and play.

stringy said
Thanks all for the replies, some great answers and insights, Katie thanks for the compliment by the way )

Fiddlerman , no I haven’t played with others with the violinmainly because there is no one near where I live, I have played guitar many times in a group, and banjo as well, in fact I more or less learned guitar by being in a group, but I take it you mean with fiddle, I will be honest though, not sure I could do it with violin anyway, it’s hard enough just playing in tune. Guitar doesn’t feel like an instrument it’s like an extension of my own body, I don’t have to think at all when playing it, maybe I thought fiddle would be the same). I have no intention of stopping playing, I was just wondering about others ideas on motivating, perhaps because I am bored with playing scales and the like constantly, turns it into somewhat of a job.

  

I get this, I really do.

Creating something every day is very hard to do.  Professional artists burn out all the time (you can tell they're at that point by what they're producing - usually it sucks compared to what they used to create) so it's not unexpected when amateurs burn out too.  Back in my younger years when I was doing a lot of custom woodworking, some days it got to the point where I didn't want to go out into the shop and turn on the saw.  I didn't want to design anything either.  It was a chore more than a joy and I haven't built anything in over a decade partly because of that.

The point in all of that is you cannot force creativity.  If you're at the point where playing is a chore, then take a break from the daily routine.  That doesn't mean stop, it means stop trying to push yourself so hard.

I'm having some trouble with viola-motivation too right now, so thanks for your input everyone. I think I should just find something new to play – just for the fun of it, and not think about anything. I'm running in circles with the same tunes and not getting anywhere, maybe it's time to look at something else.

This thread kept me awake last night because there's something in it that demands a response and that's not going to be easy to put down in written words.

I guess that response begins with asking ourselves what the purpose of playing is.  Or, more simply, why do we play?  Is it to master the most arcane musical score to the highest attainable level?  To be the best of the best of the best?  Or is there something else that had us pick up the violin that first time?  Some ephemeral whisper in our secret selves that told us that we could do this?  Mere desire?  Something more or less than any of that?

I truly believe that most of us aren't trying to learn to play just to master Paganini's Caprice No. 24, or something equally as challenging (or even more challenging).  I also truly believe that somewhere in our learning we all fall prey to the idea that we "must" do this.  We "must" learn that.  We "must"...

And that's wrong because I'm certain that few if none of us chose to do this because "we must..."

So, we return to the question; why are we doing this?  If it's to abuse ourselves mentally and physically, there are better/faster ways to do that.  If it's to push ourselves to the point of familial/social collapse, there are better ways to do that too.  So what's the point?

To me the point was to exercise my brain and body by giving it a challenge.  Something difficult but not unattainable.  I'm never going to climb Everest.  Never going to be President of the USA.  Never going to surpass Elon Musk in net worth.  And I'm certainly not going to win the FIFA world cup.  Or any of the other unreasonable and unattainable things I could come up with to add to the list.

But, what I can do is make me better.  A better person.  A better person more attuned to who I am.  Someone who consistently strives, and who knows that I won't always succeed, at being better even if only by a little bit because of that effort.  Someone who knows that the measure of that success isn't done on a daily or even weekly basis.  The measure of my success is done by seeing who I am today and knowing I'm a better person than I used to be.  The icing on that cake is when others recognize that I'm a better violin player but that's not the end goal.  Or it shouldn't be.

I am a better person than I was a year ago when I picked up a violin in my two hands for the very first time.  Not because I can play that violin, but because I understand more about the world, and the people in it, than I used to.

It's not whether I can play.  It's that I do play.  It could be golf, soccer, basketball pickup games in the park, or whatever else it turned out to be, it's that no matter what it is, I play.  Descartes said; "I think, therefore I am."  For me that's not good enough.  For me it goes something like:  "I play, therefore I am greater than someone who only thinks because I can put thought into action and make it work." And that's what I believe is the point.  To get out and do.  It's the doing that makes it worth the effort.

Then there's the tl;dr more simplified version:  It's called Playing, not Working.  Don't turn the former into the latter and instead try to make the latter more like the former.