Hi Chris,
I understand completely. One suggestion is to recreate examples that you find online. This is often what the folks at Greyscalegorilla do with their tutorials. Someone will ask how a particular project they saw on online was accomplished, and they will try to recreate it. While the result will never exactly mimic the original, the experimentation required always results in a deeper understanding of C4D and usually shows that there is more than one way to achieve a similar result.
Something else I do is to visit forums like this and try to solve issues that others are experiencing. If a poster asks how to do something that I am familiar with, I can happily explain it to them. If I don’t know how, I sit down and try to work it out myself. If I am successful I can again share some knowledge… if not I learn from others who do know how to do it and are kind enough to pass it on.
Good luck, and have fun.