Lots of good answers here. I’d just like to highlight a few points.
That’s the spirit! 
That reminds me of this quote:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
I think this is the ghost that haunts people, in many aspects of life, not just language learning. Other common ghosts for language learners are “native”, “near native”, and the infamous “fluency”. Not to say that these concepts don’t have their importance, but I believe language learners would benefit enormously from setting them aside and focusing more on other aspects of the language learning process. Our society is obsessed with the idea of a “perfect” linear process with well-defined beginning, middle, and end points. But so much in life is completely different, with multiple starts and stops, with seasons, with highs and lows, with countless repetitions, with no proper end. On this subject, here’s a small bit from an excellent comic adaption of a quote by Isaac Asimov about a lifetime of learning:
“There’s only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it. And while it is inconceivable that anyone could grasp more than a tiny portion of it… they can at least do that much.”