There are no proper ways.
You can play the game like a regular traditional RPG, leveling up. It could make the game a challenge but why is that a bad thing?
There are multiple ways to get magic: draw (hint: increase.magic stat immediately to make drawing painless. Quetzacotl, your first gf next to Shiva comes with Mag-J which allows you to junction magic to your magic stat. The best way to get that up at the beginning is Water. You can get those from fish fins on the beach near Balamb, then turn those into water with water magic refine which is a Shiva skill. Raising magic stat will guarantee 8-10 draws per turn and with other means of gaining magic you don't need to do it often because you will have created that magic already), the aforementioned item refine allows you to turn regular items - tents into curaga, fish fins into water, aura stones into aura;etc - into magic thus making every single item in the game currency for learning magic, then there's magic refine that allows you to turn magic into more powerful magic - fire into fira, blizzard into blizzara;etc), you can turn enemies into cards - there's a card game, so you can use these cards.to build a bad ass deck - which you can mod into items which you can refine into magic.
Combined you can break the game in 30 minutes. Separate, you have options to make your own challenge. You could just refine magic. You get the three base element gfs in just a few minutes - ice and thunder at the beginning of the game, fire 30 minutes or so after unless you purposely grind on the field- and all of them have base abilities that turn basic items into basic magic. So you won't have to draw if you dont want to. You could just kill fish on the beach, learn water magic item refine, learn blizzard and water, then kill some other shit, learn some thunder magic refine, learn some thunder, or do the same thing and learn fire. You will hit those other spells eventually by way of the loot enemies drop. FF8 is very loot heavy and every item has its use. Doing a run like those won't break the game - at least early.
You could play the game carding every enemy, and modding their remains into items for high power magic. I can get curagas in 30 minutes, equip that to my HP and never die. Easy.
Or I could just get magic from refining magic.
One thing I do is create classes where only certain people can equip certain skills and abilities or junction to stats. Selphie is my black mage so she gets points in mag and may defense, her HP and def are paltry, and keeping her alive is a battle. Squall is my knight. Rinoa is my white mage. She can only use white magic in battle and thus only has white magic in her magic list. Most people assign junctions even across the party. You don't have to. FF8 would benefit so much from an official job system. The characters already have classes in the FF6 sense.
You could play the game regularly and be around level 50 by end game. You could do a no level run (carding gives no xp) and the steam version has a cheevo where you stay Squalls initial level the whole game and you do this carding and knowing enemy weakness. You could hack the game file to make you lv 100 at the outset and just play the game like regular. You could break the game open and never make it a challenge.
The great thing about FF8 is that there is no right means of play. Just be flexible and have fun with it. The game is fun for people who like it because it is a never ending quest for magic and the game allows you so many means to acquire magic, without explicitly telling which the best way is. Game is open ended and kicks ass and is for people who like experimenting with loot systems, breaking games the fuck open, or having different kind of runs or challenges. If you want a traditional DQ/FF experience you are playing the wrong game. And that's why there's a billion other FF's with their boring linear progression systems to play.
