Are there stages in life or is life a stage?

Months ago, when I was really upset about my work and when I thought I would just give it all up (because "I am an interpreter", "I cannot do this", "It's not my cup of tea"), my neighbour who drives gives me a lift to work every morning told me about a theory...I don't remember its exact name but it basically says that every time you face a new experience, you go through three stages: 

stage 1: the initial enthusiasm stage. You feel like a superhero, nothing can stop you.You are not scared of making mistakes because you know you will be forgiven (you are a beginner!). All you want to do is impress. 

stage 2: the crisis. You have been doing a job for a while and you have realised it is not as easy as it seemed. You start doubting yourself and your abilities and you think you'll never be able to overcome the problems you are faced with every day. This is the stage when many people simply give up. 

stage 3: re-action! You have been down in the dumps (and you really disliked it!). You decide to react. You look at your CV and realise how many amazing things you have done in your (relatively short) life. You see that your colleagues need you and  they appreciate your work. Yes, they still are grumpy from time to time (some things never change...), but their grumpiness is not aimed exclusively at you, so you realise you can deal with it. You become quicker, more efficient and increasingly aware that you are doing things right. 

When I first heard about this theory, I didn't believe a word of it. I thought it was just some random bullshit taken from those annoying self-help books. Now I can say in all honesty: it is not! 

I am currently at stage 3 at work (hoorray!) and stage 2 and 3/4 in rugby (only because the boys like to show off and make me feel slow ;) Coming to think of it, I might even be at stage 4 at work: the stage when you have met really nice people from  other offices, you realise you are not ready to give up on your social life and you start making up silly excuses just to be able to have a short but regenerating chat with some lovely people: "I have to nip to the loo, I'll be a second"; when you realise that the time it takes to pee is way too short a time to say anything interesting, you try with : "I am going to collect the post for the whole office. Does anyone need anything else from the other building?"; you then realise it is way too complicated to make it look like you are going outside when you're actually just going downstairs and you decide to stick to: "Someone from downstairs has just asked me a favour...I really need to see them!" The problem is that the chances of anyone asking an intern a favor are slim and there is only a limited number of favours that can be asked in a day. As you can see, I am running out of excuses so any suggestions are more than welcome! :) 

But the real question I am asking myself and you all tonight, after we have all heard about the disgraceful election results in Italy, is the following: are there really different stages in our lives or is our whole life a stage? Judging from Mr B.'s success, I would say that people like clowns. The general indecisiveness and lack of unity, which resulted in the lack of a clear majority and a general feeling of discomfort, clearly shows that some (many, too many) Italians are fools. With such short-term memory they would probably make very good interpreters. The problem is that this time stage 2 won't be followed by a stage 3.