Also now what you’re doing and go for it! Think about what you want to achieve overall. I still want to get my novels out there but I’m more than happy to have short story success too! Think about what you want to achieve by the year end and don’t be depressed if it doesn’t quite come off - did you give it your best shot? Yes? Then that’s fine. Almost certainly thinking like this will mean you produce more and send more work out, which in itself has to increase your chances of acceptance.
I also see each short story and/or novel as a step along the path (as part of my overall writing career).
What effect do you want your short stories to have? Short stories are a snapshot in time so what do you want that shot to show? What lingering impression do you want to leave your readers with? Do your short stories grab you? If not, they won’t do so for anyone else! Keep writing. If you can only do ten minutes a day, do that. It mounts up over a year.
Make sure when you use things from your own experience that everything you use you are happy to see in print (hopefully achieved!) and that nothing can come back to haunt you. Generally speaking it is best to, for example, use feelings and then get your characters to expand them and take them in a direction appropriate for them and the story rather than get your character to reflect everything that actually happened to you. Real life experiences should be treated like chilli powder - use very sparingly.
It is your characters that matter, not how you feel, what happened to you and so on. Characters should reflect, not copy exactly. The irony is that so often real life things tend to sound not real in fiction. There’s a reason for the saying truth is stranger than fiction… what you seek in your fiction is the sense of truth. You want folk to think yes, that could be. And don’t lay it on thick with a trowel. People will see through that.