Welcome! I'm just next door in Ohio..

As far as motivation, does it help to focus on the styles of music you like the most or the styles you'd most like to learn to play?

For fingers...ahhhh, I hear ya on finger pain. My problem is carpal tunnel in my fretting hand so I can't even play right now but I do have some arthritis as well. The over the counter Voltaren Gel really helped me out before and after I played when it was just the arthritis. You might want to look into something like that if you haven't already. Stretching and taking breaks is super critical too. I can't emhasize that enough....I wish I had done so.

I had a bit of trouble getting through some of the beginning lessons as well, I think that's just because everything was all so new and it can be a bit overwhelming at times. Try to break it up into small chunks and just do a little bit at one time, always stopping before too much frustration sets in. Christopher (instructor here) has a great sample practice routine he likes to share so maybe he'll chime in here or you can probably just do a search on the forum where he replied to a thread. But I like how he suggests you always end on a postive note...whether it's a song you know well or heck, even a chord you just learned and can do well. Anything, as long as it's postive and makes you want to come back to it next time.

I remember I didn't even really start playing chords until a couple months in. I was so fascinated with melodies that I played those all the time. I almost regretted that once I started chords and somehow felt behind. But then I realized that time was not wasted and it gave me excellent string awareness since I could play without looking. And it prepared me well for scales.

So as long as you're just working on playing a single note for now, maybe you can look into doing some scale exercises or learning some simple melodies? There are some basic melodies in the Fundamentals 1 class and tons you can find elsewhere too. You'll get there.

Overall, just try to make/keep it fun if it's something you really want to do.