You don't put esteem "into" anything, it arises like existing does :-)

I think flowers are beautiful. Are they? Do they think so? It's the same with us. Those around us tell us about ourselves and we have to believe them because it is their opinion of what they see. If someone says, "Gee, you're smart!" I can't say, "No I'm not" because that just calls the other person a liar. It's better to say, "You think so? Why do you say that?" and learn why they see me as smart so I can then use that to judge myself by instead of just taking everyone's negative words for me (parents :-) as true. For someone else to notice and comment, there has to be something to notice; they can't read our minds or feelings, etc. to determine if we are "smart", we have to have actually said or done something. Collect those things others see and you will get a sense of yourself as smart, etc.