like most manipulations and manipulators, JWs function by getting you to REJECT reality and compare yourself to a carefully crafted IDEAL. this IDEAL is presented as your true potential and something you should always strive to be...and it seems to make sense...but because it is an ideal, is not about reality, and may not be about true potential either. the one thing it cannot help but do is to cause guilt for not measuring up and that is its real purpose.
Reality is always exactly what it must be in each and every moment, not what it could be...and if you realize this, nothing can cause self loathing guilt to accumulate...but so few come to understand this. should you strive to be the best you can be? that depends on what your goals are... sometimes being the best may harm some of your goals sometimes it may change your goals along the way and sometimes it may help you to reach one goal and lose others...each move is always a gamble to some degree...there is only the moves you make, not the ones you could have made...accept them, learn from them and prepare for your next move. no guilt required.