I was a sysadmin and moved to software development. A big part of the difference is mindset. When I used to work with sysadmins often solutions to problems are "google for a while and then call the vendor". You need to get out of that mindset and become more self reliant. That machine you are using was built by humans, that language was designed by humans and you are likely attempting to solve a problem that isn't dramatically different than problems solved by tens to hundreds of thousands of other humans. You can do it.

Without perseverance and mental toughness it's going to be an uphill climb to become a programmer.