Learning About Ourselves: A Life Long Process

I learned something about myself recently. It really isn't new. It's something I have done repeatedly in my life. Maybe you will be able to identify different areas in your lives that have repeating similarities.
What I found out is that I am not good at dress rehearsals but can usually pull it off at the end. When I was in little plays with our Catholic Youth Organization, the same thing happened. My director wrote me an encouraging note after a performance saying what a very good job I had done. He admitted that it didn't look likely that I could pull it off based on the rehearsals.
As many of you know, I just completed training as a receptionist and leader for Weight Watchers. In both cases, I "clutched" during the pre-evaluation, giving reason for my evaluators to wonder about me. At least I think they were concerned (pretty sure:)). I did not say that I panicked to get attention. I really did!
In both cases, I reviewed everything I had been taught, prayed (and asked several people to join me), did all I could to prepare, and then took a deep breath and did my best. I do know that one of my strong points is to persevere. I don't really consider giving up once I have fully committed. In both cases, I did better than I expected to in the performance time that counted.
It helps us to understand ourselves. Even though I have been through things like this numerous times, I still seem to get "stuck" once in awhile. It is easy to say afterwards that I was too hard on myself..In the middle of it, others who know me are sure I can do it (especially the leading with my gift for gab), but I really don't believe it. I give others similar advice when they are striving for a significant threshold to overcome, but somehow it has to come from the inside. I guess that's what makes us human.
Hope this helps someone understand his or her self today..We're all on this path of self discovery together.