Question for Professionals/Experts

I'm currently studying and practicing VBA in hopes of eventually becoming highly proficient. My question is, what exactly does it look like to be an expert: For instance, are you able to write VBA code from scratch as fluently as you would write a sentence in English, or do you generally start with Macro Recorders and use that as a blueprint? Do you rely heavily on reference books or the VBA help library, or are you able to accomplish most tasks on the fly without any reference materials? And from a practical point-of-view, what was your training like as you went from novice to intermediate to advanced? By that I mean, are there any strategies or techniques you used that really helped you master the coding?

Any responses would be highly appreciated. I'm not looking for shortcuts; I just want to set some realistic goals for myself and get into good habits, so I figured I should ask people who've already walked this road.