Then perhaps you'll permit me another warning, which I think is even more important: don't fall in love with the idea of being a professor.

What I mean is, don't feel obligated to be become an academic. I use the term "love" deliberately, because you may end up feeling a similar kind of commitment to academia that people feel to their lovers. That is, the relationship isn't doing you any good right now, but you want to continue based on how you used to feel and commitments you made to yourself based on those feelings.

A lot will happen in the ~5 years it will take for you to get your PhD - just as a lot can happen in a serious relationship. You may come out at the other side not wanting what you did when you started, and that's okay.