TLDR; What I'm trying to say in fewer words and better articulated version here. Saw it as soon as I finished writing.
I've been thinking about this a lot in the last few days. Once I've set a direction for myself and ignore any need for a timeline, truly magical things happen. As long as I stay the path I find myself learning and doing thing I never thought possible for me or worse that it's just not who I am. The truth is it comes from a place of fear, doubt and some fucked up sense of worthiness. Also a lack of curiosity. At least from my own experience. The key thing is to throwaway a timeline. Embrace the cesspool. It simply takes what it takes, for some it's two years, some it's seven and for some a whole lot in between. It's hard at times but you've got to enjoy the journey as it'll stay with you longer than any victories or defeats. It's where you become the person who does the sort of things that need doing in order to achieve the sort of things you want to achieve. It sounds abstract foggy and unclear, get used to it. It's what it feels like when doing something you've never done or thought possible.
If I were to give a few examples from my own life. I always thought that talking in front of a camera is not for me. As I used to work as a video editor and tried the whole YouTube thing when I was in my early twenties. It's mostly true. But streaming is something I love. It's a whole lot of fun having while I build things I'm curious about, things I've never thought I could or built before. So far I've written a display driver from scratch, built a lexer, parser and now currently building a compiler. All the while getting better at Zig. To the point that I can write longer and longer sections of code without having to look up the language reference.
The next important thing is to do it daily. If it really matters to you, do it everyday. Without exception, especially when starting out. If daily effort gives you exponentially better results that is. For instance I squat only twice a week as for me it's the sweet spot between my knees not screaming at me yet still making progress (currently ATG Squat max is 170kg). Luckily for me, all the things that I thought were the end of my life as I knew it were blessings. Being single for example. Somehow the more comfortable I feel in my own company and skin, the more attractive I feel. There is a whole lot more, but the details don't matter. The thing is you got to take the leap and soon enough you'll grow wings on the way down. All you need to do is be straight with yourself about what it is that you want and be okay with "falling".
It will suck at times, just two weeks ago I was struggling with just getting off the bed and then at night having to go to bed thinking I was going to have to wake up and do it all over again. Some weeks are just like that, so what. Do the best you can. This too will pass. As it has for me, now it's starting to feel like something I can't wait to do, I still fall short from time to time but the good news is I get to try again...tomorrow. Again, this too will pass.