Do you lose your special interests when things get too hard?

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An example is playing guitar. At first it's pretty fun and easy. You progress quickly, you can easily play chords to songs you love and it's very easy to find teachers and material. As you progress it starts to become difficult and you may plateau. It also gets harder to find teachers or material. Would you lose interest when it starts to get harder? I always seem to and it's extremely frustrating.

This happened to me with Icelandic. Since it's an obscure language I had to teach myself. It was also extremely hard to find material that was my level and interesting enough. Eventually I lost interest because of lack of material and other interests distracted me. The same thing happened to me with accordion. At first it was a special interest, but when I actually started playing it just became an interest.

yeah when its an interest in things that you learn I often lose interest, very frustrating, I did that with piano, violin and magic.

I have about a month of really good concentration and interest and then suddenly I have no interest at all, does not always coincide with it becoming too difficult, but I think it makes a difference in how quick I lose interest

I remain interested in psychology/behavior and TV (I think my interest in TV is a subset of my interesting in psychology and behavior). I stay at a level I can comprehend and remember. When I get lost because the psychology is too complex for me, I go back to the level I understand. I can't and don't want to stop trying to understand as much as I am able.

Sometimes. I have a functional knowledge of advanced level statistics. Can't afford to go back to school so I bought several old college textbooks and taught myself what was needed in my situation. It did and does get challenging. I take a break for maybe two or three weeks. Usually something like a good day will motivate me to try again. I can't see myself just wandering away from something I really like. Same goes for Mandarin Chinese.

So when things do get too hard, I step away so I don't become too distressed and come back when I am ready.

My interests have never been anything that require skill or talent & aren't things that can be hard or easy; just things I do like watch TV, listen to music & post on forums. But based on my personality with other things I think I would lose interest or at least need to take an extended break.

Sometimes they stress me too much, so i stop. The problem is that, when i quit because it's too hard, my mind can't stop thinking of how to overcome what i stopped even if i try to do something else.
For example if i'm playing a game and have spent hours on a hard part that i can't pass and stop playing, i know that my mind won't stop thinking of how i should play to pass don't matter how hard i try to distract myself.
The same thing happen when i'm trying to learn a new song on my keyboard. If there is a part that is too difficult sometimes i "rage quit" but discover a few minutes later that i can't even think of anything else to do.

No. I just get incredibly frustrated.

I started trying to learn this 13 years ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqrKnjo1SSs[/youtube]

SO CLOSE yet SO FAR

I bailed out on the gym and going to a barbecue tonight so I figured I should do something productive. Getting there but oh god, I'm so close to giving up on this one but I have to keep going... At some point I'll be able to sing and play it.

I don't tend to give up on things completely, but I do phase in and out with my projects over the space of about 6 months

Yes I think this was a problem with my most of my life, and I get threatend if breaking out of it otherwise.

I tried my best to get out of it but all they to is threaten me in very drastic measures.

I use them like a crutch when I get really down.

Nope. If anything, the challenge makes them that much more appealing to me.

If whatever it is I am interested in starts causing me considerable stress then yea I probably would withdraw from it for it a bit. I'm a sports fan and its definitely a lot harder to stay interested if your team sucks.

I find it difficult to even start doing things that interest me

I have many interests, when one thing becomes difficult and frustrating I switch to another interest for a while then return to the interest at a later stage. I always return though, so it's not giving up.

I like a challenge, actually I get board if I don't have one. I have given up on learning some songs because they are too simple. I need to see evidence that what I am not wasting my time.