Reply to Where does a beginner go to learn mixing?

I am really interested in learning to mix music live. I bought a used Vestax VCI 100 with 1.3 firmware on it (it came with the chip to upgrade to 1.4 which i plan to try soon, but my one concern is that the DJTT video for upgrading firmware says to use serial to serial instead of usb to serial and i cant find a serial to serial cable...). I grabbed a copy of traktor 2.5 and picked up an NI audio 2 DJ soundcard.

I can set everything up fine (with my monitors seperate from my speakers) but i COMPLETELY SUCK at mixing tracks together. I know its a skill that takes time to learn but i didn't realize I would be this terrible. In my head i hear all these great transitions and drops between songs, but when i attempt them i just cant get the songs to sound good together. I feel like there is a limited range of songs that can transition to/from and i am attempting to transition with "incompatible" songs.

For example, i really like the two songs "Make Some Noise" by Chukie and "Shave It Up" by Zedd. Or "Zipper" By Sound of Stereo and "Space Junk" by Wolfang Gartner. But anything i do to try and mix those songs together just sounds terrible....

So basically i am just wondering how did you guys learn to do mixing live? I am a complete noob.\

P.S. what mapping should i use with my vci-100? Is the latest (4.1) the best to use with traktor 2.5?