I think it's hard to have self-esteem even when we do accomplish a lot. All the compliments I ever hear, I doubt. I think it's a natural thing to do sometimes.

We are taught to praise others and not to accept compliments ourselves from a young age (society's conditioning), in my opinion.

It's hard work to learn to accept oneself as who one is later on in life, I think. I know from personal experience and failures.

And the progress won't be linear, or at least it hasn't been in my case. It's not like one day I woke up with self-esteem and another day I woke up without it. It takes sustained effort and sometimes I feel down on myself still. (I'm not saying I solved the issue completely, either).