Challenges to learning an instrument

Do you struggle with playing your instrument? Everyone has challenges. I struggle on piano with polyphonic pieces, since I never really studied Bach Inventions early on, and since I can successfully play so many other things, I just don't really work on inventions now. Extended left hand independence is one challenge for piano. With students, I try to help them avoid this same issue by assigning various articulation and dynamics with familiar scalar passages. 

On clarinet, my challenge is keeping my altissimo (extreme upper) register proficient. Now that I think of it, this is also a vocal challenge for me. Unless I actively warm up and work in these areas, my abilities to sound nice (or to "sound" at all!) suffer.

With guitar, my challenge is just taking time to play. I don't do this enough if I don't have students to motivate me to keep it up. 

What are your challenges?
How do you feel when you have to work hard at something?
If you quit when things get tough, how will your life be different than if you persevered? 
Does learning an instrument help you learn to persevere?

It can be frustrating, to the point of wanting to quit, when things take work to learn. Sometimes, there are young musicians who are so much better than I will ever be. When I hear others play who are so much better than I, sometimes I am inspired. But sometimes I am discouraged. I think: I could never get that good!

And then, someone comes along that inspires me so much, I just have to share. German French Horn player, Felix Klieser, is one such person. Perseverance and attitude have so much to do with his success as a professional musician. Watch the video to see how he has taken his childhood desire to play and has overcome his challenges. 
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