After thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that most of my characters are self-critical, but adamant about moving beyond their situation, their shortcomings, or their past. I do play around with this idea quite a bit, now that I notice it, such as one instance where the character had already conquered his past, and had left himself in a cathartic state where there was little of value in his life, and he had no reason to do anything. I was also playing around with characters who moved past their situation by denying it entirely, leaving behind the past to reinvent themselves as a better person. It's kind of a situation where they believe the change is positive, but in reality they are just refusing to face their own issues.

I've also found that whenever I make two characters for one RP, I form some sort of massive dichotomy between the two of them, a sort of dual theme/concept that that the characters each represent a half of.