While skimming through my ever growing Evernote (which is getting pretty awesome), I came across this funny, but very true look at what it's like to learn Web Design and Drupal: You must be motivated to learn by a passion, a dream, or a need to escape a present reality. Without that, you are unlikely to have the patience, and dillegence that is required to finally be able to "play for enjoyment". When you first start, its going to suck: its going to be both boring, and confusing. Can you endure the unpleasent experience of watching yourself suck, while both confused and bored? There are no shortcuts, YOU MUST LEARN THE FOUNDATIONS. Anything you perceive as a shortcut is going to cost you more time in the future, than just learning it the right way now. The single biggest barrier between your present reality, and your future goal is practice, practice, practice. Its going to take time. And it takes time for everyone. Go easy on yourself, don't expect yourself to grasp CSS floats in an hours time. Like anything worth doing -- getting there requires sacrifice that most people won't be willing to give. Even when you get to my level, you will still remain deeply unsatisfied with your present skill and knowledge. And that in itself becomes a great reward in the end. Taken from Nick Lewis's blogpost on how to start web designing (check out the rest of the article)