The best camera is always the one you have with you.
Having a top of the range camera with all the best kit is no good if you've
left it behind.
The best way to get better at anything is practice. The saying practice
makes perfect exists because it's true.
Having all the best kit in the world wont help if you never go anywhere.
Spend more on traveling than on gear, and take what you have with you.
When you get any new gear spend some time getting use to it, read the
manual, no one ever knows how everything works straight out of the box.
Use the internet, there is a wealth of information on any topic you may
be interested in, with YouTube offering a wealth of videos on all aspects of
photography.
Learn how the different shooting modes work, auto will only limit your
creative ideas, but that doesn't mean you need to be fully manual all the
time either.
Most cameras have at least some level of creative modes allowing you
to take control of some or all of the settings,
use them to unlock your full potential.
Shoot in RAW if your camera allows it, it dosen't process the image and saves
all the data for you to process in the way you want later.
There are a few rules for photography that will help improve your composition,
like the rule of thirds, the rule of three, the golden ratio,
but knowing when to use them is as important as how.
Lastly, try to look at things in new ways, go high, go low, look for a
different angle, stand out by doing things differently from everyone else.