[nglevin]

Start with smaller projects, something simple based on either what you already know, or an existing lesson/blog/book. Then adjust it a little bit, work iteratively, towards the new stuff.

It's really easy to get lost in the big picture of what you want to do versus what you can do. Try not to do that. Just work on smaller bits involving the new stuff, falling back to what you already know at times, and keep at it. If there's a way you can do ColdFusion with Ruby/Python/whatever, go for it.

If you haven't seen it yet, Zed Shaw's Learn Code The Hard Way[1] series does a good job of getting you to use the right tools for the environment. Which is something I see frequently ignored by these sort of online lesson plans... it's not the languages themselves that are difficult to learn, but getting accustomed to the tools to use them, and the best practices.

[1] - http://learncodethehardway.org