I have also had problems with confidence, but as you build up experience, you realise that many of the problems you have with flying are just down to lack of experience. (If that isn't a circular arguement!)
The more experience you get, the easier things you used to find hard become. I'm sure Whirly will have found this, and this is perhaps the secret of her success, she didn't give up, but kept practising and, over time, built up experience.
I use the following tricks for finding airfields:
. as part of the flight planning I look at an aerial photo of the area to see what landmarks stand out and where the airfield lies in relation to them. This also allows you to see what features on tthe airfeild stand out.
. I look at the chart to see what roads, railways lines, lakes etc. pinpoint the position of the airfield.
. when you ring for PPR ask about local ladmarks, e.g. at Derby airfield, the Toyota factory at Burnaston as at the base to final turn onto runway 23.
Don't think that it isn't a valid technique to fly to a line feature, e.g. a railway and follow the line feature to the airfield!
Good luck
tp