My road towards becoming a master

I am on a mission to raise my rating to 2200 in the next 6 months, so I felt that to do this I need to be beating masters instead of settling for draws and beating up on class players.

I have felt that I have had the raw skills to become a master for a while, but I've was missing a crucial piece to my game. I can calculate decently well, my positional skills feel better than that of my expert peers, and my opening knowledge can be extensive. However, I felt I've been lacking the ability to dictate a game through initiative and posing continuous problems to my opponents, regardless of strength. I have a tendency to air on the side of caution and talk myself out of risks. This usually ends up leading to passive positions and getting the crap beat out of me. I've been making a conscious decision to make a change.

Now to this past Tuesday: After losing a really tough and heart-breaking game to my opponent at the New England Open two weeks I was out for blood. Yi Yang is a strong young master from central MA boasting a rating of 2300+ and reputation of being a tactical wizard. Having the black pieces, it wouldn't be easy to dictate the game. I'd love to hear some feedback on how you think I was able to control this game.