So I may have fucked up a bit

I left the starter area immediately after I got my cobra MKIII. I have hardly the capacity to jump from one system to the next, let alone half the "objectives" I'm finding at station outposts out this way. What should I do/where should I go? Not finding my next objective (IE making more money in any way at all, have only done nothing but courier missions at this point) easy to figure out. Just one of the 100,000 CR exploration missions have me travelling to one system, then the station is 13,000 Lys away, which I ofc cannot jump. What did ya'll do fresh out the starter area? I am completely lost and finding it real challenging to find any systems with missions that are close by. And my ship is slightly upgraded, better FSD better power supply I think it's D. So my ship is upgraded although idfk if it is correctly that is lol. Please help! Am lost af out here lol.