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Hi @KnottyJim , sorry for the delayed response, I have been on the road, holidays and all. There are two things that may be holding you back. Daily playing: I grossly underestimated the importance of this one practice for the first years of my playing only to become a strict devotee of the practice once I saw the results. I was able to do this by raising the level of importance of the daily playing. It was difficult to convince those around me of my sincerity and my personal need for this carve out. Their perspective was based on what they heard and not what was in my heart. Gaining this understanding was in itself a small win. It also bolstered my determination. When my mother died, I played. When my grandson was born I played. When I travel I play. After spine surgery I played. After shoulder surgery I played. This was and integral part of becoming the player of my desire. The second thing is unemotional analysis of progress. Are you actually not progressing or are you not progressing as fast as you would like to progress, or are you progressing so slowly it is hard to tell? The subject is a heavy one. Once identified the good news is you get to optimize progress based on your own analysis. I leaned heavily on the forums for the first few years to accomplish this. Putting my struggles down and reading solutions with open-minded curiosity was almost as frequent as my playing sessions themselves. You have made progress just to get to this cross roads, just keep going and keep playing everyday, no matter what. The rest we can fix all together.
