I am currently eyeballs deep in Ivan Galamian's Violin Pedagogy Book. It is not a new book (He passed away in 1981), or even new to me (I read it in college) but something about it currently has me captivated.

Let's get something straight - I HATE to practice violin...until I am actually doing it. Have you ever experienced that feeling of total dread, knowing the level of focus you are going to need to apply? I do it on a daily basis. However, once I have practiced for about 10 minutes the endorphins kick in, the productivity wheel has been turned, the switch flipped....you get the picture. I then develop this profound sense of pride in my accomplishment of practicing.

I have learned to make a deal with myself. I say "Daniel, just get it out and play for 15 minutes, then you can put it away." Inevitably that snowballs into a massively productive session. I will often practice for 3+ hours at a time and the last time I missed a day of practice was several months ago. So often, I believe that people simply need to give themselves a chance to succeed. PULL OUT YOUR INSTRUMENT - You don't need to set aside crazy amounts of time, just give yourself room to fall in love with your craft. It WILL happen and when it does, you will say to your instrument "Wow, this was really nice, we should do this again soon."

That's it: Give yourself a chance.

Now go practice :)