1. There is no master secret or step by step guide
2. Option 1
3. Option 2

There is some truth of the joke up there, when you see some security researcher, ethical hacker or cibersecurity guru talk and explain with so much facility what they have done, it is because before that, i am quite sure that they break their heads against the screen and spend a lot of time on it. And that is one of the things that i believe, it is crucial, the time, but if you are willing to spend time, then be sure that you are willing to take the things with patience and coldness, and with coldness i do not mean to be a robot without emotions, i get excited too when i am about to get the flag of a reversing challenge from HTB, or vulnhub, but it is really important, that you don't lose your mind on it, because you will lose it, at least, in my experience that was what happened to me, and after that, i get really frustrated, sometimes you will solve a super hard mindbreaking mamushka challenge in 3 months, other times it will go quite straightforward, but remember, never lose the patience.

In my opinion you must keep in mind this 5 things to become a good reverse engineer.
 1. Patience
 2. Time ...in fact, a lot of time...
 4. Focus
 3. Methodologies
 5. Control of your emotions Most of it is related to control your own frustration
Keeping that 5 things in mind at all time, and with the right knowledge and time, i believe you can solve any challenge that you propose.

Oh!, and last but not least:
 If you need a distraction, take it, your brain is asking for it, sometimes begging for it, play a game, read a book, relax, then go back stronger, but absolutely NEVER, overwhelm your mind, you will get again, frustration.

Feel free to collaborate with your own crackmes/keygenme/unpackme, if you can, send me an email notification to wsadev, otherwise, just do a pull request adding a new file.