The best way to learn it is to make sure that you really want to do it in the first place. If you are passionate about learning this stuff, whether it be security or programming or whatever, you will pick it up and run with it, no matter what your preferred method is.
I work with some people that are exceptionally intelligent when it comes to a myriad of computer skills. They have tons of experience and certifications, but they hate what they are doing. So when they need to learn something new it takes them forever to do it.
I love this kind of thing...I have since I got my first computer, a Commodore C-16, when I was a kid. The way I learned Basic was to just write Basic. I had a book to use as a reference, but I tried to write the code without using it. I did it that way until I went to college and took computer science classes, where I was a kid in a candy store. I just love what I do.
That is the key to learning. Just love what you do.
