HOW HARD IS IT TO LEARN?

hey. i have had an eletric guitar -fender strat- since i was 13. ive goofed off with it every now & again but never really sat down & took the time to learn how to really play. now i am serious about learning how to play guitar. how hard is it to really learn? i was watching the cd that came with my friends acoustic guitar trying to learn the notes & chords and i was looking in the booklet that came with the guitar as well at chords & notes & i just got so frustrated & put it back up because i was completely horrible & couldn't remember any of it as soon as i went to the next thing. what is the best way to learn the guitar & what is the fastest most effective way? i think guitar is beautiful & i really love listenin to people play, id love to be able to play a beautiful song on it but i just feel like its too hard for me to get down. any advice will be greatly appreciated. thank you guys!