Heya cylon. I totally agree with what you said abotu doing this just for fun. We get our egos involved and go, if this doesn't work then I'll be wrong and that'll be soooo bad.
I also TOTALLY know what you mean about struggle, and posted about it here:
I want challenges?. After that, I realized that for me, too it was about credit. If something came too easily, I can't brag about it. It's like picking up a piece of lint and bragging about how strong you are, or beating a 10 year old at chess.
Relax and let go and trust and play with it. Good advice.