I think it’s a common misconception in life to think you could ever really fully understand yourself. I’m not just talking about our psychological makeup, no, I’m talking about the depth of our humanity.
I’m talking about knowing what you are capable of.
For example, there are so many things we don’t know about ourselves until circumstances tests us. How would a child who grows up with no intellectual stimulation ever know whether they could succeed in academic study without exposure? The answer is they wouldn’t. Before you can succeed or fail at something, you must first be exposed to it, and then encouraged if you show any interest. Only after a period of discipline and study can it be determined whether one has aptitude for any particular subject. Even this is a complex topic – since one is expected to fail at something in the process of learning it, perhaps desire should be the most critical piece of this puzzle. But again – in order to discover desire, one must first be exposed.
How about knowing how you would deal with fear and death? Well, it’s impossible to really know this until you are directly confronted with it.
My point here is this: We never stop growing, both in the sense of truly understanding our inner strengths and also knowing what we are capable of. Life will eventually teach us the former, and our active curiosity will show us the latter.
Stay proactive and pay attention.