This is something that I think many will face in their journey. like the saying goes.
Often the artist fell in love with art and the masterpiece. Once the success is achieved as humans we tend to forget the small joyful moments that we feel when overcoming the hurdles. Being your own competition is never easy but the real difference is when you losses the focus from the process of creating art and start treating it as a competition. Then, its no longer fun and you give up trying.
To put in your word the bird gets so focused on the thought of getting back to the branch that it forgets to try and learn flying..
Thank you for such an amazing post.