Have you taken a stab at 10NL? Are you beating 5NL?
I did take a stab at 10 when i had 21 buy ins but had a (insert word here) and lost quite a bit, so moved back and thought i should take another shot with more buy-ins. Since then i've learned quite a lot and think i'm ready for 10, so will give it a try when i maybe have 25 buy-ins. I was waiting till i got out of a (insert word here) and i think i'm out of it now and that it wasn't really a " " but was just that i wasn't playing at fishy hours of the day.

1 - turn on your computer. Seriously. Value bet good hands. Fold when behind. Play position!
yep, all that.

anything i was going to get out of poker was going to take a lot of boring work.
Yeah i think that's it. Accepting that it's going to be very long and drawn out at first with no noticeable or tangible reward for a while.