The first thing is to recognize that you are a sinner and unable to do anything to save yourself. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the well. He came to give water to the thirsty. Are you sick? Are you thirsty? Romans 3:10-12 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Do you include yourself in this list?
If you do, Romans 3:23-25 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;"
Romans 5 - the whole chapter is a mountaintop chapter in a mountaintop book 5:6-11 "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."
The above is so exhilarating, if you will take the entire meaning of this into your heart. While we were YET enemies, God loved us and died for us.
This means we repent after salvation, not before. We can't bring Him a thing. The Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags. The best thing we can do is like a piece of garbage. We come to Him just as we are, filth and all. His blood is what cleans us, and we repent and change after being converted. God does not ask a person who is unsaved to do a thing, except to believe.
Romans 10: 9-10 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Being saved is not intellectual, it is not agreeing in your head with the tenets of Christianity, it is having a conversion experience. There is a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. I have heard it put this way- I can know all about George Washington. I can read books about him, first hand accounts, his letters- but I can't KNOW George Washington. I can know all about him, but he is dead. I can't know him as a person. A person can know all about God, read the Bible, believe it is God's word, and know all about Jesus without KNOWING Jesus. The difference between George Washington and Jesus is that Jesus is not dead, but very much alive and very much a person you can know.
Belief is in the heart, not the head. It is so simple, children are able to be saved.
I am sorry for the long post, but I can not think of how to edit it down to a more concise explanation.
I hope you are able to find the peace in Jesus that passes understanding.