I replied to rabidcat in a PM and he has asked me to post that reply on here, he thinks others might find ituseful and if they do then great.
I will start with the end result, I am a calmer and more confident pilot, because I approach work in a more proffessional manner I am retaining more information and crucially understanding that information better. You have a choice to make, do you want to be a PPL and purely have fun or do you want to be a professional? If you want to only be a PPL just be safe and have fun, adopt a safety attitude and that will be enough. If you want to be a proffessional take that safety attitude to the next level and be calm and thorough at all times. It isn't easy at first, but with practice it gets easier. I think of my "hero" at work who I want to emulate and consider what they would do when I need to make decisions.
My situation was due to a lack of training at work and being restricted to a glorified autopilot, so when I came to command training I didn't have the key skills in place. I had to learn 5 years worth of training in 3 months, and pilotpsy along with a CRM(I) course helped turned my outlook from a bolshy happy go lucky to what a true professional should be. If you are in any doubt find a CRM course as it is a useful tool even for single pilot ops, it teaches you to deal with others in an aviation environment no tjust the cockpit.
In short the only person who can make the difference is you, and it isn't easy but take a long hard look at yourself and compare yourself to sam on pilotpsy and change if you can. Just remember thought CAN change behaviour, it did for me.
Good luck
Si