Hungry beginner needs structure!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Josh and I hail From a small wine country town in Northern CA! I have always had a passion for music but waited till late in life to actually commit to learning. I cant afford lessons so until now I was browsing youtube for the best guitar lessons possible. And there's some good stuff on there but unfortunately it lacked the the one thing I KNOW I NEED in order to reach my goals, "STRUCTURE", the point A-B road map to successfully becoming the musician I am determined to become! Not knowing where to begin I have been just concentrating on skill and dexterity exercises during the last 6 months, and had progressed surprisingly faster than expected. Well... so I thought, I picked up a bad habit in the process and trying to break myself of it has left doing scales and fret exercises, at first, slower than when i first began! I have dabbled in music theory and have a general outline as to how it works as far as "what" notes are in "what" keys, and chord progressions, Basic beginner knowledge. I would really like to get started PROPERLY and EFFICIENTLY honing my skills and building my musical vocabulary as soon as possible, so I will happily take all the advice I can get! There are two serious long-term goals I am attacking; Learn Lead Guitar, and Learn To Write Songs! I would love to write music in many different genres, but really want to be able to party with my guitar and play some Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Lead one day, and then emOtionally bond with it the next playing something reminiscent to what let's say David Gilmour would play! Rob Flynn of Machine Head is THE "!"MAN"!" and inspires me the most!
Now that you know a little about me, the 1st year wanna be, I look forward to meeting other members, the seasoned pros, and latching on to whatever knowledge and inspiration there is to gain from them! I wanna show the world oNe day why MUSIC IS AN ART!