I suggest making your own sets. Just try building a team with nothing but a damage calculator to aid you, and then see how it does. If it fails miserably, try comparing it to the analysises and see where you deviated, and examine your matches to see what things made you lose. Try to fine tune your team building skills until you are able to build a workable team without needing to consult other sources, and then you can move to the point where you check the smogondex for Pokemon after you make the team, not before it.
One of the most important parts of getting better is being able to play the whole game by yourself, and that includes the half where you build your team. It really helps you appreciate the analysis as you can appreciate not only that the sets are effective but why they are effective and what the writers were thinking when they suggested them. It helps you see what parts of the sets are less essential and which moves to sub out for those "Other Options" which helps you use them to make a working team instead of six good Pokemon. It also makes the game far more fun as, when you win, you know you earned it as much as is possible for you to have earned it; your own talent was the only thing working on your side. I think this sort of thing is what would help you broaden your horizons, and it would make you much better at the game to boot!