IMHO 1. Be
IMHO
1. Be BAREFOOT! Transition shoes just slow the process
2. Find the roughest surface you can stand. That might be asphalt at first, but will eventually progress to gravel.
3. Read everything you can get your hands on about barefoot running. I really think it was all the chatter on BFKenBob's forum that did it for me. Sometimes 10 people can say the same thing, but using different analogies. Eventually someone will hit on something that clicks in your mind and you finally get it.
4. Go slow. I didn't finally get it until I hurt myself (doing something unrelated to running). It is hard to slow down enough to just run 1/4 mile at a time for a while unless something is forcing you. Until you stop running in shoes completely and tune down your milage enough, it just isn't going to happen. That doesn't mean you can't ever run in a minimal shoe, but you need to nail down your form barefoot and THEN go to a minimal shoe.
5. Barefoot often. Even in the winter, I ditched my shoes as much as possible. If we had a day where the streets were dry and it wasn't too bitter cold, I would warm up on a stationary bike first and hit the streets barefoot. This kept my form from deteriorating too much.
I'm sure there are people out there that don't have to do barefoot reality checks so often, but I'm definitely not one of them. The minute I put on shoes things start to go south. The one thing I would have done differently is I wouldn't have bought VFFs until I was well established with barefoot.