u/Cautious-Bullfrog900

So I have a mountain bike with a Shimano Tourney TZ front derailleur with 3 gears to shift. The cable is attached to the shifter on the handlebars but not to the derailleur. I want to set up the derailleur so the gears work fine. The first thing I do is set the limit for the smallest gear while the cassette is on the biggest gear. Then I attach the cable to the derailleur, trying to make it tight.

The problem that I’m having is that when shifting up, the front derailleur goes into second, but I need to press the button on the handlebars super hard to get it to go to second, and it can’t even go into third because the shifter becomes too stiff. What am I doing wrong? How should I set up the cable?