In my experience, the biggest challenge to learning a new skill is first believing that you are capable of doing it. After accepting that you can do the task at hand, confidence is required to reinforce that belief and keep you from giving up. Khan Academy has begun a program to develop techniques to foster these ideas into what they call the growth mindset: "The belief that you can improve your abilities by practicing and learning from your mistakes." In previous eras, this was called discipline as disciples spent many years under a mentor's guidance until gaining the full knowledge to become the masters.