Daily Chess Study Hours

As you progress, your rating won't go straight up.  There will be ups and downs and periods you seem stuck on a level.  Don't worry about it, at all. 

My old coach advised, "Forget your rating and learn the game.  As you learn the game, your rating will take care of itself!"

Play players stronger than yourself, but not so much better that you have no chance.  The game is supposed to be fun, and it is no fun if you never win and you will get discouraged.  So as much as possible, play those you have an outside chance of beating, at as slow a time limit as they will agree, record the games and go over them to find your mistakes and figure out how to avoid the same errors in future games.

You can improve if you stick with it. 

Tactics, Annotated Mastergames for improvers and Playing slow games (which includes analyzing you own games)