A student finishes playing through his piece.
Me: What do you think I'm going to say?
Student: Practice in sections? And work on the rhythm?
Me: Why yes. In fact, it says those very things in your notes from last lesson. Did you do those things when you were practicing?
Student: Kinda.
Me: Kinda as in "I gave it a try?" Or kinda as in "I'm too embarrassed to say 'no,' so I went with 'Kinda'?"
Student: (awkward silence)
Most of the time, we know what we have to do. To practice, to work better, to improve our lives. We have our own internal teachers.
The challenge is summoning the courage to act on those things.