Understanding oneself is an ongoing process, one that occurs as we change – new jobs, marriage, become parents... The best and easiest way to understand our self is to figure out our likes and dislikes. In the future, this helps us to take decisions of our choice. For ex. pursuing a career or a field.
An important way to understand one self is by understanding the people around us, especially, our friends. Our friends have an important outcome on our lives. It is obvious we only choose friends who are in one way or the other similar to us. Charles Taylor, an important philosopher said that in order to understand oneself, it is important to be a part of a group or community. It helps us to understand our identity.
Why do we bother seeking to be part of a group or part of society?
There can be mainly two reasons for this. Self-verification and self-enhancement. The first reason basically means confirmation from others of what we already believe - positive or negative about ourselves while the latter meaning the approval of others. ..When accepted by a group it reaffirms to us that we're worth knowing - we have some value. Maintaining a journal or diary is a useful and efficient way to keep track of the ways you have changed over a particular period of time. Revisiting them helps us to look back at our positive and negative characteristics or traits. These help us to discover and improve our own identity and personality.
Another example is in the movie of Titanic. Rose was a girl with notable social status and she would be married with a business man, Carl. Though she did not love him, and was tired about the sybaritic life of upper classes, she lived against her own heart. When saved by Jack, and had conversations with him about their distinct life, Rose realized that she did not want to be an upper class anymore. She finally acknowledged her love with Jack and decided to live with him forever. Jack's discretions prevented Rose from jumping into the ocean and also encourages Rose to be brave and act in accordance with her heart. Communication is the very way that made Rose to change and understands herself as a woman.
I would like to conclude that understanding oneself is a very long process and does not simply occur in a blink. In any case, we discover new qualities or virtues about ourselves probably every day, there is no end to it!
Your supporting paragraphs do not support the "very long process". They do, however, support that it takes time to find Karma, as Karma developes in oneself as experiences teach.
You need to go back an read your writing, there are some awkward tense changes. And one thing struck me, your saying it is important to understand friends. My experience is that it is important to know your enemies also.
I think I would point out as a conclusion that our lives are shaped by our experiences and our understanding of people, including ourselves, but our understanding of ourselves may the most difficult of all, as we deceive ourselves with myths that are self validating.