Strengths and Weaknesses

There are days where I feel like everything's a weakness, and there are other days that I feel mediocre.  It's a rare occurrence when I find myself thinking about my strengths, mainly because I know there's always something that needs improving.  For some time I was thinking of myself as a first-class kata performer, recent competition results have shown me different.  Every time I go out to California for Camp Shotokan, I start thinking of myself as a solid fighter, and then the very next tournament disavows me of that thinking.  With these things in mind, I've begun wondering whether there are benefits to recognizing your strengths at all, or if you're better off just worrying about your weaknesses (i.e., everything).

This might seem like a very cynical way of thinking, but stay with me for a minute.  If everything is a weakness, then clearly you need to improve every part of your game.  That means speed, form, technique, stance, power, kime, focus, concentration, agility, dexterity, etc., etc., etc.; the list, I suppose, is endless.  This can be a fantastic way to motivate yourself to perform at greater levels, and theoretically, show better results every time you work at it.

At the same time, this can be severely demotivating, so the question arises, which way of thinking works best?

I myself feel that a balanced approach to self-motivation is necessary, the balance isn't necessarily internal but should come from an external source.  A teacher, instructor or coach that is a great motivator is a prime example.  I know exactly what is getting better based on how Sensei approaches his critiques of what I'm doing.  This external source plays counterpoint to my internal negative outlook on my abilities.

Finding this balance can be difficult, but it's necessary to truly progress.