Self-respect mostly gets built in quiet wins: the dishes done, the text answered, the hard page finished.

Self-respect is not a feeling you can talk yourself into. It accumulates out of small promises kept, most of which nobody sees: the sink emptied, the message answered, the paragraph read twice. Each one is a tiny piece of evidence that your word to yourself means something.

Pick the smallest thing you have been avoiding and finish it within the hour. The dish, the reply, the first half page. The size does not matter, because what you are building is the habit of believing yourself when you say you will do something.