I suggest you to get an initiation handbook (unfortunately, I don't know anyone in English to recommend you), study and play. You should play at least 2 hours for each hour of study; try to apply the concepts and you will gradually incorporate them. It will be a great idea to join a local club, so you can play and analyze at the same time with players of different levels. Also, you must go over your games once finished, so you can find your mistakes and think about them. About the study, it's better to start about general openings principles, endgames and tactics. But don't get obsessed, the most important thing is to play and play!
Discouraged Noivice Advice
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Also, if you often are able to find such kind people like achja, I predict a brilliant chess career to you.
LHB58,
I would never call myself a strong player, but when I first came to this site I was much much worse than I am now. Back then, I played almost only live chess. Here on chess.com, all live chess is essentially blitz, the slowest controls being 15|10 which is still very very fast.
Then I started playing online chess (I notice you don't do this) and let me tell you, my game has gotten a LOT better. I find that I just can't really learn much of anything at fast time controls. A learner needs to take a lot of time to look at moves, and begin to develop the intuitions needed to play good moves quickly. It's like learning a language - you have to start by speaking slowly and work your way up to quick fluency.
Anyway, if you're really looking to get better, then I'd recommend giving online chess a try for sure.
Agree with the above posts, but to tl;dr it:
- HAVE FUN!!
- Play online chess (personal: 3 days per move is good, about 5-10 games at a time. At beginner level, maybe focus on checking to see if any of your pieces can be captured before pressing "submit")
- Try chess mentor, tactics trainer, etc (these are fun believe it or not)
- Challenge higher rated players to "learning games" if they are nice enough to accept (at least a 1400 for you, the higher the rank, the better the chess theory, though lower rated MAY have better beginner tips)
All the best with it 
LHB58,
Definitely keep doing what you're enjoying--blitz and bullet. We're all here for fun, after all.
I did just want to add, though, that online chess is as much of a commitment as you make it. You could try just keeping one or two games going, and putting ten or fifteen minutes into each move--so, ten or fifteen minutes every three days. Then hop into the live-chess and play blitz until you keel over if you want.
One more thing you might strongly consider would be joining a group on the site devoted to an opening or great player that you like, and then joining one or two of their vote chess games. Just reading people's posts and submitting an idea now and then will help you learn a ton, and, again, it doesn't need to take a lot of time. Every group I've been involved with on this site has been extremely friendly and very happy to help a novice understand the ideas behind good moves. For me, this is a much easier and less time consuming way to learn than sitting down with a heavy chess book or something. Like you, I don't have tons of time for chess but I do like to improve.
If you do try vote chess, though, be sure not to be a drive-by voter...make sure to read what everyone has said and vote only in the last 24 hours (if you miss a vote, it's never a big deal).
Just to start off, my knowledge of chess has always kind of stopped more or less at just the knowledge of how the pieces move. I know other basic rules and principles like castling, controlling the center, etc... But when I try to play a live game, I just get picked apart. I just have no idea where to start and how to get better. I know I can read almost everything there is to know about chess, but applying it all is just seemingly impossible. Where would yall recommend a beginner to start? I want to play others but I just get brutalized and it just ends up discouraging me more. ANY tips on study plans and whatnot would be amazing! Thanks!