Learning Japanese is hard at first. But I can tell you that the hardest part is the beginning! Once it "clicks" for you, you pretty much are just practicing and learning new things until you know enough to be fluent. The hardest part is getting that click.
What you need to do is think about Japanese in the right way.
One of the biggest things to realize is that Japanese is not English. I know, you're saying "Uh, yeah?" because that seems obvious. But there's more to it than just that.
When you are learning Japanese words, you need to learn them as Japanese words, not as translations of English words. Translation is its own unique skill that you gain once you are good in two different languages. You don't need to -- or rather you shouldn't translate when you are just starting to learn a language.
If your friend pointed to your pet cat and asked なにそれ？ (What is that?), you should not think "It's a cat, and cat in Japanese is 猫." and then answer 猫だ。 Rather, you should just see the 猫 and know you have a pet 猫 and never think about how you even have a pet cat. Because you only have a pet cat when you're speaking English.
It's never a good idea to study vocabulary through methods that link a Japanese word with an English word. Rather, you should learn vocabulary through usage and imagery. When you are a baby, you see a cookie and you hear someone say cookie. After a while, you start to learn that the object you are looking at can be talked about by making a series of sounds that looks like "cookie." You don't learn it a secret baby language and then have someone give you a dictionary to translate to cookie. And you don't look at it and think of it in baby language first and then translate it to cookie in your head. You just look at the cookie and know it's a cookie.
Japanese needs to be that natural, too. Learn words by thinking of them to yourself when you see them. When you see your cat, say 猫 to yourself. Do the same with your テレビ and that 諸説 next to your ベッド. Get in your 車 to go to your 仕事.
You may not be able to read those words just yet, but that's how you have to think of the words when you do learn them. They are not equivalents to English words you already know. They are their own words.
This is important because sometimes even the most simple words that seem like they should translate directly do not always work that way. I remember our teacher used to sit at a table in front of the classroom, but she called it in Japanese something that would translate to "desk" if you asked a dictionary. But to us, it was definitely a table, not a desk. To her, there was no way it was a table. When you're picking up new words in Japanese, be careful to pay attention to how they are being used. Learn them the same way you learned that cookie. You see something, learn a name for it, and then start applying that name to it. Later on your definition of what is or is not a cookie or a desk or a chair can change -- don't think that just because a dictionary says something or you learned it one way that it is necessarily that way.
The same goes with learning grammar and structure. Japanese grammar is so vastly different from English that you can't really think about it in those terms. Certainly there are action words which are like verbs, descriptive words which are like adjectives, and naming words which are like nouns. But there will be many times that these seem to overlap or trick you in Japanese. That's because Japanese do not class their words based on their English translations and how those words are used in English.
When you learn a new grammar or structure in Japanese, try to think of its function, learn how its used, then don't try to think of what you would call it in English until you are forced to.
Now, when you're learning, sometimes you'll need certain terminology to be able to learn things. That's why I think it's really helpful to make up your own or use ones that you don't use when you're talking about English. Instead of calling words like 出来る 飲む "verbs," try calling them "u-words" or "masu-words." LINK:JSL uses the term "verbals" because it's similar to the English word "verb" but it's NOT a verb. Because they really aren't verbs. And I'm not just saying that to encourage you to think of them that way -- they're really not. "Verb" is just the closest English word we have to describe them.
Your brain needs to learn to go between English mode and Japanese mode and separate them. There shouldn't be any translating in your head going on. When you're first learning new things, you'll have to think of them in English for a bit because English is the way you're being introduced to them for the most part, but keep practicing them until you don't have to think about English. Once a Japanese word or concept or structure comes to you without you having to think through it in English (even if it's a bit sluggish to come out in Japanese), then you've really learned that part.
It's hard to do at first, but once you have them separated in your head, Japanese will be a lot easier to retain and a bit less complicated. Just really learn all of the basics and get a foundation, and you'll soon realize that you can learn anything in Japanese.
It's a very structured and organized language. Once you get down the basics, it's actually quite easy! The hardest part is definitely overcoming the barrier of difference between the two languages, so it's vital that you try not to think of Japanese as translations of English, and try not to think of things with English meanings or descriptions. Practice what you know until it just makes sense to you naturally. You can do it :)
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