vimtutor is pretty good, actually.

Outside of that, http://yanpritzker.com/2011/12/16/learn-to-speak-vim-verbs-n... has a nice explanation of the editing worldview, which ties in with Steve's quote in http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/chapters/16.ht..., "The idea of operators and movements is one of the most important concepts in Vim, and it's one of the biggest reasons Vim is so efficient. We're going to practice defining new motions a bit more, because extending this powerful idea makes Vim even more powerful."

Check out http://www.moolenaar.net/habits.html, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1218390/what-is-your-most..., and maybe http://vimcasts.org/episodes/archive?

I've been using it for about a decade, so I think I've lost the beginner's mind to evaluate whether these are really the right entry points. Lots of people are passionate about vim, though; some googling should find you the exercises that will help you the most.