So we have all been there,
It's a Saturday night gig for some inexplicable reason your drums decided to sound terrible tonight despite your best and consistent efforts with a drum key. Your forgot your favourite ride cymbal, your hihat stand broke in the second song, the singer decided you desperately needed to play that super under rehearsed song, your solo was beyond awful and to top it all off you left your spare shirt at home and face the rest of the night sitting in your own sweat.   
Suffice to say its not difficult on nights like those to be a little 'down' on your playing ( and probably your organisational skills!) but it is usually those nights when someone will walk up to you and give you a compliment like

"That was awesome mate... Awesome!"
Or 
"I just wanted to say I really enjoyed your solo, amazing!"

Which is ofcourse lovely but.........
Most musicians I know are highly self critical, I know I am. In past times  I've found myself thinking in my head 
"are you mad!?"
"are we talking about the same event!?"
To my detriment I don't mind admitting that once or twice I may even have said it out loud. 

After some consideration of these situations I decided that this really isn't fair to yourself or more importantly the kindly person who is trying to express there appreciation of your performance.
The person speaking to you may well be a music fan who has no idea of the dark inner workings of drum tecnique and just enjoyed the music for what it hopefully was.... Good music 

In the past I have given unsuspecting listeners chapter and verse on why or how I haven't played my best this evening which when I think about it really wasn't needed.
What your actually telling that poor person is 
"what do you know? That was awful...
You clearly don't know what your talking about!" 
How would that make you feel?
It's actually quite mean isn't it.
Let's look at what's happening here:
You the player have a certain level of performance that you strive to reach every time you play and anything under that is disappointing.
They the listener have a certain expectation of live music and anything that exceeds that expectation is a wonderful surprise. 
It seems very possible that you could fall short of your own expectations whist exceeding that of your audience 
Depending on how hard you are on yourself.
I have a new policy that no matter how bad I think my gig was if someone says they enjoyed it or offers a compliment I simply say 
"thankyou very much I really appreciate it" and then shake there hand 
Simple ..... 
You can see the difference on people's faces and to be honest you do actually feel a little better about that awful gig.

And anyway you can always have a good moan with the guitar player on the way home ......

Happy drumming 

When you rWhen you really think about it playing the drums or any instrument for that matter is a huge undertaking. 
There are so many styles, so much vocabulary and so much technical development to be undergone that it can be easy to get a little overwhelmed at times. 
Just when you think you have that tricky over the bar line rudimental based fill together comes the horrible realisation that you haven't spent enough time working on your Latin feels lately.
Especially when all you really wanted to do was play the music that you love!
I think this is one of the major causes of young intermediate students becoming disengaged with drum lessons at one point or another.
SO what do you want to do?
Why do you want to do it?
What tools do you need to get there?

You have to get organised!!!
Organise your practice sessions into short achievable goals. A collection of 'little victories' that will lead you to your goals and help keep your spirits up along the way.
It's also very important I feel to decide what is relevant and needed for your playing TODAY.
Is that cascara pattern going to help your gig in the orchestra on thursday?   
Or would your time be better spent working on your buzz rolls and dynamics?
If your playing some metal on Saturday hadn't you better dust off the double pedal and put away that funk book?
Again by doing that I'm sure the end result ie the gig will be better so you'll feel a sense of improvement quicker in your playing and therefor feel the desire to practice more!!  

I encourage my students to keep a practice log of some kind so they can organise there practice in this way.
On the days when you feel you need a drumming 'pick me up' it can be revitalising to turn back to the first few pages of your practice log and realise something you were once really struggling with is now a fully usable part of your playing vocabulary.

Give it a go.
Happy drumming