Steal others' ideas

Well, not exactly steal.

Borrow, maybe.

Or adapt.

Use.

It's worth checking out other approaches that people take to learning a language (especially those used by successful language learners, and even more especially the approaches of people who initially failed).  

Begin by getting hold of a copy of 'The Polyglot Project' (or here as a pdf) which is chocka-block packed with such accounts. Follow up the leads. Identify the common themes. 

Try ideas on for size.