Thanks for all the responses.
One of the reasons that I posted this question is that I tend to always push myself to be better, no matter what it is that I do, and so I do compare myself to these great musicians.
A little background. I run marathons - well I have run A marathon - and plan on running many more. Several people told me to just be happy running 10K etc. but I wanted to do better so I trained for and ran the full marathon in May. I guess I get bored staying at the same level all the time and need a challenge.
It seems that it’s the same with the whistle. I got to a level of competence and got bored so for a while I thought that I would just learn another instrument. I have fooled around with the mandolin and tenor banjo, but when I play in sessions I always play the whistle. So I made the concious decision to get better at the instrument that I was best at and have been attending sessions for about 10 months now (1/week). I feel that I have plateaued, and while I am still enjoying playing very much, I want to get better. It’s just the way I am. It doesn’t mean that I am not having fun - but it could come to that if I don’t have a challenge.
Anyhow - there have been some great suggestions on this thread, and it seems that there are others out there who have the same problem (if you could call it that). Also, there are obviously a lot of people who are just happy to stay at the level they are at - no problems with that either - to each his/her own.
Thanks again for all the help.
Cheers 
Gerry
[ This Message was edited by: WhistlingGypsy on 2001-09-05 14:01 ]