Jump lesson on George

Yesterday I had a jump lesson on George. It's been a while since I've had a jump lesson, and George's tendency to kind of plow into the trot poles has reawakened the chicken in me (that we were finally dampening).
We started with some flat work, with the "usual" instructions from Shannon that I hear, but somehow don't follow in between the lessons:
- Ride him more forward. If he wants to be flinchy, don't clutch up with my hands but kick with my legs. While contrary to every instinct I have, every single time this works like magic, so I don't know why I can't learn it the "new" way (the way that works).
- If he wants to be a bit of a pill (like he's, oh, had a day off), let him canter it out. Get up in my two point, shorten the stirrups and dig my hands into his neck, and let him do a couple laps each way. That lets him settle down and focus, just like when I have too much energy.
- Quit being lopsided with my hands! Even in the two point, my right hand would be all sneaky and snake down low and to the right, even if I touched my thumbs across the top of his neck. I'd have them touching, and then my right hand would try to sneak off and I'd have to force it back into place.
We did some trot poles and then some canter poles, then the poles, halt, back, turn around, trot back over them, repeat, and then variations of those on a big circle, where my job was to keep the same rhythm (1-2-1-2) and go straight over the middle of them. Sounds simple, right? It was fine until we started cantering and then the thing I posted about with Mike - the crazy bending to the left - went crazy again. It was like a battle of willpower to even get him straight - even with my right leg kicking and my right hand battling to pull him to the right instead of left so I could see his right eye. Shannon said to a) twist my heel in instead of lifting my heel, and b) to just ride him looking at his right eye until my body gets over whatever freakish thing it's doing.
Then she set up a little cross rail, so we did the 20 meter circle (cross rail to ground pole to cross rail) at trot and canter, then with a new block underneath, then with her strolling around near it.
Then she turned it into a little vertical and we did the same series.
For once, as we went along, it would start out ugly and messy, but she'd make me keep going, even when I was flustered and wanted to stop and pull myself together again, and then, lo and behold, I'd be able to pull it all together while we were going.
And once, he got surprised when something changed and went to run out, and my right leg, miracle of miracles, did its job and corrected him!
It was a very satisfying lesson, but at the same time, I still feel pretty much like a goober.