It's not reality checks that make you lucid, although they help, but it's logic and awareness for me.

In one particularly derp moment in a dream, I rationalized why the reality check failed... In fact, I RC'ed a couple times and still didn't connect the dots. @_@ But I'd advise to be motivated, but not to the point where you'd get frustrated. Instead, look at what you've accomplished and take it when it comes. Keep up with your dream journal, I dunno about you, but even non-lucid dreams to me are still quite interesting. Though I will admit that a lot of times they seem mundane until I actually get down to writing them.

I'm still pretty novice myself though, so I'm just going by my experience.