I was last month where you are now. I nearly sold all my stuff I got so frustrated. I wanted to be able to shave my whole face my first go, but I ended up with tufts of uncut whiskers, numerous nicks and sweat rolling down into my eyes. I went through this for the first five or so shaves. In retrospect, what I wish I'd done was to shave my burns and my cheeks with the straight and shave the rest with my DE (or whatever shaving method you use). Work on strop technique also.

Once you're comfortable with your cheeks, venture out a bit, and try the neck or under the nose or bottom lip, but go slowly. I'd go that route until you have it down. Even though I've had some great shaves, I still do not feel that I've "arrived" at all, and I'll pull my DE out of the cabinet from time to time if I feel myself getting frustrated. Another mistake I made was to try to straight shave when I was running late, and that increased the frustration level by a factor of ten. Now if I'm running late, I go straight to the DE...no pun intended.