Compassion allows you to forgive your mistakes and preserve your self-esteem. Compassion also allows you to put unreasonable values and rules in perspective. Compassion for youself allows you to forgive yourself and maintain your sense of self worth. You literally uncover the hidden jewel of your own value. Please treat yourself with compassion.
Compassion is the core of self-esteem.
It is a skill that you can acquire and improve. Understanding yourself only means that you have some idea of how you operate and why you operate that way. You typically know what you will do in a given situation. Acceptance means you acknowledge the facts while suspending all value judgment. Forgiving yourself means you let go of an incident of the past without dwelling on it or making yourself feel miserable all over again.