I've an interest in linguistics and languages going back to childhood. When I was 14 (well, a month before my 14th birthday) I decided to study German. I had an interest in German culture beforehand and have two parents who formerly studied and worked in Munich and Frankfurt but whose German has grown rusty having not used it for 2 decades by that point. It was a net positive in all regards. A fun language to learn I could use with my parents as well as a code (originally they used German to speak to each other while we were in the room. I messed that up.)
I got to a B2 level on my own but it took a few years of on and off studying. I also studied French in college and it took me a year or a year and a half to get to the same level.
Advice I could give: time management and discipline > intelligence and talent. You could be natural at a skill like music or art or math, but those who aren't could run circles around you if you don't put much effort in and rely on your talent. Sure, talent and intelligence speeds up the learning process, but it's auxiliary in every case to actual effort and time.
Second thing: consistency is key. You don't need to study tons every day of your life. Any pace is good so long as you do it every day. Sure, doing a lot a day will get you there quicker theoretically, but you'll easily burn out and stop working for days, maybe even weeks or months.
Thirdly, this is the most important: if you find it easy, you're doing it wrong. Well, ok, not exactly. If you find learning a skill super easy, you're in one of two camps: you're part of the upper echelon of learners with extreme intelligence and skill, or you're missing something. This is how I felt learning German; I found a lot of it easy, but eventually I realized there's tons of holes in my understanding I needed to rectify, which is why I decided to re-study German in college. My professor called these holes "fossilized mistakes", ideas and mannerisms I adopted years ago when first learning I never let go of.
