<human>: Give me the gist of the text in a nutshell

I've been having a hard time meeting girls I like because I went through a lot of rejection for a few months.  Which is to say, I got a few people's numbers, but almost none of them returned texts, set up dates, many flaked out, etc...

For a while I thought that I should just wait until I found someone I liked in a natural setting, but then that didn't happen, and I ended up not asking anyone out for six months.  I asked my guy friends and they told me I should be asking out way more people than I am / had been.  My problem is that after having experienced a lot of (albeit polite) rejection, it's really come as a blow to my self esteem.  I've had exes who really boosted me up, and made me feel like a really attractive person, so facing the fact that so many people found me totally "meh" was a reality check that was pretty painful.

Now when I see a girl I like I think "oh why bother, she's got tons of guys who want to date her, I'm sure I'm somewhat cute but why would I be worth her time, and what would I even say anyway..."  This is too bad, because I ended up having this attitude and almost ended up not asking out one of my exes (in fact, she asked me out because I assumed she was too cute for me).

But it seems like the *vast* majority of girls will reject you (like, well over 95%, in my case).  Girls all tell me "wow, you must really be doing something right," while guys all tell me "nope, that's totally expected and just how it is, it sucks but get over it."  The problem is, getting your ego hurt so bad means that I rarely flirt with women in public now because I just assume I'll get rejected.  I know that if I don't make an effort, nothing will happen, but how do you restore the confidence in yourself to put yourself back out there?
<bot>: got rejected a whole lot since my last relationship, how do you pick yourself up from so much rejection and believe that someone will find you attractive again?