What really motivates you to practice?
What inspires you in the short term? What inspires you in the long term?
And what do you advise to maintain discipline and avoid distractions or emotionally draining life events to get in the way of maintaining some kind of routine?
Da biggest motivation is preparing for a specific perf or rec session
It really is as simple as that.
You get a deadline, dick goes back into yo pants, and u ruzh to da 88
da zuztained prax routine iz uzually motivated by da fact dat
deep down in yo heart
lie an unwavahrin belief
dat eventually
thru hard work
u vil fulfill yo gensui potential n becummah
A TRU FUCKIN LEGEND 
wizout diz belief, tiz bettah to chill n only prax zporadickly
Hahaha untru
Da prax only cum thru sheer necessity
You prep specific rep fo a rec or rectal, n you do what you have to do
haha da 
'z āI do 100 concertz a yr othahwize I wud nevah praxā
da zepp probably tru fo da youngah mofoz tho 
Haha this is da life of a professional pianist; always learning sheeyat at short notice, and not learning sheeyat unless you have to. Tiz why Iām always sceptical of pianists who claim only to perform a small fraction of their rep. Usually itās āla dĆ©brouilleā, where you juz hustle to get shit ready. Itās even worse for people like Mikey who are basically professional accompanists. Then you just have to be a wikid sightreader and hope for da best on concert day.
My real motivation is (as far as Iām capable of objectively anal-yzing meself) to become a BETTAH PENISZT n MUZISHAN, which is a never-ending process. I donāt give a damn about giving concerts, often dislike the experience. I do care for leaving a handful of recs that Iām really satisfied with.
Iām unbelievably lazy. Iāve not done any practice for over a month. If I have a specific goal I usually can manage ten hours a week, and I do learn very quickly, though often sloppily. In general, Iām probably letting myself down, but Iād rather impro than practice.
I have not done any serious practice lately, but I learned to play ballet classes, unleashed my first 2 today n made $100
Life is gud.
I practice an hour every weekend. Sometimes midweek too. Is weirdly therapeutic. With practice youāre 100% responsible for your outcome which somehow alleviates ambiguous stress and serves up some healthy humble tea. It also takes a level of concentration which takes your mind off your troubles with less need for recreational substance abuse 
I think now that Iām returning to piano as an amateur Iāll practice a lot less than I used to. While I was back in Oz, I didnāt do more than 3-4 hours in a day, because my muscles didnāt have the stamina to do more, after 4.5 years away from the piano. However, I actually really enjoy practising, and could happily spend the whole day working on specific problems (almost always technical).
Yeah thatās another motivation - just solving problems and trying to overcome them. One of the most satisfying things in the world is when you discover you can play certain pieces easier or better than some years ago, just by keeping a good practise routine.
@festinfurious Surely you play most days though? Do you just separate ādisciplined praxingā and āimprov noodlingā?
I donāt play most days! Iāve not worked on any pieces this year, though Iāve done a little improv, a little composition and some public piano.
To be fair, when I have a definite learning project, upcoming recital or recording, I would be doing at least two hours a day.
Well I definitely would like to see more Improv&Paraphrases from you, definitely my cup of tea and itās been inspiring for me to view this as a legit route for me to go down myself.
I also applaud Katsaris for including improparazheeyatz in his recitals, it definitely feels more legit/accepted than it would have even 20 yrs ago.
Serious musicianship doesnāt always have to mean sticking to the most āseriousā of rep.
Iām a little bit paraphrased out 
Iāve got a few things Iāve dabbled with, but nothing that really jumps out at me as a must do. Motivation comes and goesā¦
Iām off and on trying to orchestrate the piano concerto I wrote, and tbh Iām finding it quite difficult. I was wondering about the practicality of āperformingā it in tandem with a synth orchestra controlled on a laptop plus speakersā¦ Iām very seriously considering starting my next public concert with improv. Rezpek da kat for being able to get away with this kind of thing!
Re improv, I donāt think you were around when I posted it in da membahz recz, so maybe my self-made improv album might interest you? 1-4, 8, 9 are improvz. Itās not the sort of thing I imagine being taken seriously by the classical mainstream, so I was quite pleased to recently find a review of it in an āofficialā source.
This link should play it via yt.
Rezpec! What kind of material forms the musical vocabulary you drew upon for these?
Sounds like a mix of Late/Post Romantic harmony but with some earlier romantic figurations and techniques thrown in like Thalbergian arps etc.
Mostly romantic techniques, 
and 
type harmonies (I think my assimilation of these over time is my greatest improv strength), but also an element of baroque part movement ideas in the Chorale, albeit Busoni might be hiding in there somewhere.
In the final analysis, I think Iām a better pasticheur than composer.