How to become a better pianist?

Q. I have been playing the piano for about 10 months now. I am essentially self taught (I took a crash course in high school where the teacher kinda just stood around) and I have become decent. I played the in game version of Zanarkand for our spring recital, so it wasn't the easiest piece, but it wasn't difficult by any means since I altered a number of the chords to get there faster (now I am relearning the same version with the full chords). The one problem I constantly find myself in is that when I am learning a song, I tend to spend hours on certain parts and find my self getting nowhere with it, and we're talking things like Mozart and Beethoven for beginners. I took 6 lessons during the summer before I went to college and that helped marginally. I feel like I'm doing something wrong and want to become better at it, even though my time is fairly limited right now (I am going to be a film major next semester in college this year). But I intend to set up my schedule so that I can find at least 1 hour in the day to play piano, since music is so important to me as well. I have a pretty good background in music theory and can read sheet music, but I can't sight read- that's something else I want to get better at too.

Thanks to everyone who answers!

A. As a self taught person, you probably are not using the best body/arm/hand/finger position. One lesson with a pro will tell you what to change, and get some exercises to strengthen your hands (you can do them in class, during lectures).

Next, get a progressive set of lesson books. I like the Bela Bartok "Microcosmos" set, because they are real music. They tackle simple problems, and build on them. I found that Julliard's bookstore had the full set, so I could look and see which one I needed to start on. If there is a school of music near you, check out the library.

Original Question

Title : How to become a better pianist?
Description : Q. I have been playing the piano for about 10 months now. I am essentially self taught (I took a crash course in high school where the teac...