I really need to sit down and reverse engineer my roadmap.

I understand the benefits of trying to emulate and follow a "road map" to success. 

My real estate goals for the year are:Build a network of real estate investment professionalsNarrow down my interests in specific areas of real estate investmentCreate a roadmap I can follow toward my first investmentThe areas I'm most interested in at the moment are buy-and-hold rental properties (probably out of state, since I cannot afford the Seattle area) and flipping. 

The roadmap I'm currently following starts with wholesaling, then flips, then buy and hold residential properties Like most of you, I've read a bunch of books , but I'm a hands on learner.

You want to underwrite your STR to see their viability when things turn South and already have roadmapped potential alternative paths to take in the case of unforeseen circumstances. 

Although I have read reread it and reference from time to time in reference to my flip it gives you a detailed road map to work from (nice to not have to reinvent the wheel!)

Everyone gets a copy of your roadmap. 

There are so many good ones, but that's one that goes beyond mindset (which is the first half of it) and gets into showing and building you a template / road map for whatever niche of RE you decide to go into.

The road map for real estate investing success can be found right here!

So start thinking and writing and come up with an investment road map towards a well defined goal (and share it with your girlfriend -- may as well see if you two are on the same page now).