Sometimes, practicing singing sucks. It may be my number one frustration as a singer.

Yes. I love singing. I really do. I love it entirely too much. I love it so much that occasionally, I never want to sing again, because what I’m doing or feeling is so mind-numbingly painful or unpleasant that I would rather cease making music for a day or a week or forever than continue to do something I dislike.

Singers: practicing is not always easy.

Anyone who said that you were going to go skipping to the practice room (or, in my case, a 20 year old electric keyboard [real classy, Georgeanne]) 100% of the times you’re going to have to go practice is lying to you.

But. I feel guilty when I don’t want to practice.

I think about the number of singers out there–the competition is fierce. How many of them are practicing when I’m sitting here with my dog, poking around gardening forums or watching a Cops marathon? I think about the sacrifices my mom has made–I think about the sacrifices I’ve made–for me to study music.

It seems almost like an act of rebellion to avoid practicing.

But, y’all. Not wanting to practice is okay. It’s okay. I am here to tell you it’s okay.

Maybe you’ve worked an eight hour (or more) day at the survival job you’re working to afford YAP auditions. Maybe you’ve had a fight with your mom and you just don’t feel up to anything. Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep last night because you were up working on a paper (or you were up late the previous night practicing).

What do you do in this situation? You do what you can.

Sometimes, “what you can” is small. That’s alright. If you’ve only got it in you to work on one measure, work on that one measure and then call it a day. Something is infinitely better than nothing.

Set a timer for twenty minutes. Work for those 20 minutes and then stop. Don’t judge yourself for working those 20 minutes. Don’t think about the people who worked 30 minutes or the people who worked for hours. Those people? They’re not you and they’re not feeling what you’re feeling right now. Their circumstances are different. They’re in a different place. They might as well be a world away from you.

What matters is that you’ve done what you can.

I promise you: you will get done what you need to get done. You will learn the music you need to learn by the time you need to learn it. Will you learn it all tonight? Probably not.

Tomorrow, or maybe the day after, your “what I can” will look very different than what you’re feeling right now. … But tonight?

Start somewhere. Do what you can.