I think there are 3 approaches:

1) Sound "like" somebody... by trying to imitate overall feel. Which is standard among many recording musicians.
2) Try to find "your" sound which is fairly hard... to find something original and tasteful. Sort of a "goal" to reach.
3) Experiment. I think this is the most enjoyable one, as you are not "bound" to idea of sounding certain way.

...Listen to the mix on common medium. A car, cheap speakers, headphones, to get different perspectives on same mix. (Car works very well smile )

P.S. I had a few people on this forum that guided me through some things.
The 2 most valuable lessons for me was: panning some instruments to L/R and avoid frequency clashes. There is a tool by Izotope called Tonal Control, which helped me a lot to get mixes under control. Still have a loooong way to go. Fun part is learning smile