Here is what I recommend.

Note-- I can send examples -- Chord Progressions and lists of songs to get you started.

Bottom Line-- Learn the basic chords w/in the first 3-4 frets-- E, C, D, G, A, B and F (unbarred ).

Get these down to where if some one were to wake you up in the middle of the night and hand you a guitar and tell you playone of these chords you could do it still half asleep.

With these chords you can play a variety of songs.

Easy one

Chord progression--

D, C, G

3 songs you can play with these--

1) Blue on Black -- Kenny Wayne Shepard
2) Country Road-- James Taylor
3) Over the hills and far-away-- Led Zep

On the last song you may have to play more of a chord progression like this follow the groove of the song.

D, C, D, G -- keep playing these three chords in various progressions and different styles and you will become amazed at how many different songs you will recognioze-- Like U2? Try playing these chords to the Joshua Tree album. With an ocasional A thrown in for good measure.

Also remember to focus more on the "groove" of the songs you play and less on the actual melodies of the songs. You will notice that this will help your strumming and palm muting.

After you get these basic major chords down then you should shift to minor chords, then shift to mixing major and minors, then.......

Welcome to the world of Guitar. Here practice does not make perfect but persistance. Always hang in there and try to learn from everybody who can even strum a guitar.