Self Esteem. Confidence. A sense of self worth.

Self Esteem. Confidence. A sense of self worth.
These are everything. When you want to start a new project, meet a goal, even have a solid relationship--self esteem and confidence are important.
You wouldn't start a goal that you weren't confident about finishing would you?
If you didn't feel that you could lose 20 pounds by the end of the year, surely you wouldn't have made that your New Year's Resolution.
I met a woman who seemed to be trying to better herself by going to the gym. We began talking and as we spoke, within in 2 minutes of our conversation, she lamented that she wouldn't find a man who wanted her because she's "fat, ugly and talks funny". She continued on but those words echoed in my mind. At first, the concept of someone speaking so lowly of themselves without an ulterior motive was foreign to me. But I realized that this wasn't her playing the sympathy card as so many others that I had encountered, this woman really saw herself in such a manner.
I had to take myself back to the days when I actually believed things like that about myself. The days when I believed that I was unattractive, stupid and flawed beyond deserving any type of happiness. I snapped back into the conversation, and told her exactly what I'm writing here:
Fake it until you make it.
This type of attitude doesn't and shouldn't apply to many things in life but confidence and self esteem are the main things.
How did she expect to start a successful relationship or meet her gym goals if she had no confidence or sense of self worth?
I went on to explain to her how much self worth allows us to be self reliant and how much more likely we are to cut off toxic people (especially potential life partners) who want to treat us poorly.
This conversation prompted me to take a look at back at myself and just how badly my low self esteem affected my very life through toxic friends and toxic relationships and how I would have saved myself a lot of trouble and heartache by walking away from such people. This woman would have to know that she can survive being alone so that it wouldn't make a difference if ever she needed to escape a bad friendship or relationship.
Today, I am teaching myself how to be alone and I am beginning to deeply enjoy my decision to do so.