You must change your mind and cage your inner critic.
Do not think of learning to draw as a goal in it self. Since you will be learning your entire life it can not hold up as an end result. When you attain any level of proficiency, the goal will always entail the next level up. Because of this your critic will always have a hold on you, no matter how proficient you become. It is like chasing the rainbow, so forget drawing skills, it will come with time.
The secret to defeating your critic is to release the concept of drawing and grasp at creation. Realize that every subject must exist in a world. Freeze whatever your subject is in time and then place it on the paper. See it, hear it, feel it, live it. Truly be there and see what happens around you. Pause and see the world in which the object resides materialize. Hear what sounds are coming from where. See from where what is moving to. Step into your subject and feel as it feels, see as it sees and move as it moves. Is the wind blowing?
Soon you wont care about drawing skills. You'll have too much fun living in the moment of creation. Who cares how neatly the graphite is arranged. You must look at what lies beyond graphite, beyond paint. Beyond skill.
If you draw a whale, the whale can simply not exist on its own. There must be water around it, and already a world is forming. What else is in the water. What is the whale doing. Where is it going. What is it thinking. How is it thinking? What is it feeling? How is it like to swim with a gigantic form like that. How is it like to see with sound into the vast darkness of the deep.
Make a world in tour head that you can live and breath for a few short moments. Do not draw simply to arrange graphite in a pretty pattern, but draw because you glean that which lies just beyond the surface of the paper. It is alive with sounds and smells. With action and movement. Experience it!
Once you see how easy this is you will realize that your critic is gone and within your grasp is the essence of drawing, the Prime mover.