Cannot bring myself to finish the dissections in lesson 2

3:24 AM, Thursday March 14th 2024

I've been chipping away at the dissections for a little over two month now. The thing is, I just can't bring myself to continue working on it, even after a two week break. I don't know, it feels like my body and mind just reject the idea of continuing to work on it. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, what did you do to overcome it? I really want to continue with the lesson but I feel utterly stuck and don't know how to break through it.

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8:07 PM, Friday March 15th 2024

sounds like a case of total burnout to me. I experienced this many times when doing the 250 box challenge. the thing that really helped me was to just take out some time aside to draw things that I liked. sometimes I felt like I couldn't move on if I didn't finish the exercise, but I soon realized that wasn't true, and took the time to reconnect with drawing as a hobby/ thing I wanted to do.

some other things that might help are:

1) your environment. sometimes we really need a change of location to actually feel like doing something-- especially if your current drawing location is associated with a lot of struggle.

2) affirmations to yourself before drawing: "it doesn't need to be particularly good, in fact the website expects it to be bad"

"I'll go at my own pace, even if it's one line everyday" lines like these could maybe help you get into a better mindset before drawing.

3) Posting your work to the discord for advice. sometimes we can't work on things because it feels pointless or going nowhere. the discord could really help you by giving you really specific things to focus on, which is much easier than focus on the entire page.

4) take it one bean section at a time. it feels overwhelming to do two pages of the dissections, and you have more exercises to tackle after this. after finishing a bean section, call it a day and rest.

5) extend your break. maybe two weeks isn't enough for you to recover from burnout

you don't have to 'get over yourself'. It's important to listen to your body and mind, as it really seems like the stress is getting to you. remember, many people take more than a year to complete each lesson. It's okay to take your time, and remember that you're not failing at the course just because you can't bring yourself to do an exercise right now.

3:58 AM, Saturday March 16th 2024

Yea I think you're right. I was in denial about having burnout after trying so hard to avoid it. You definitely bring up some good points, like adjusting my mindset and pace.I admit that I am a very impatient artist, and since I was getting pretty frustrated with this exercise I just wanted it to be over as quickly as possible. I have a feeling that taking things a bit more slowly as well as having more patience with myself will help me out.

Thank you for the advice! I really needed it!

10:19 PM, Saturday March 16th 2024

Glad I could help.

Good luck!

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