Learning to love ourselves is a hard task, even when we are not in a relationship, it's amazing how many people including me have had self-esteem problems at least once in life. In my opinión you need to be happy with yourself till some point before starting a relationship, other ways are very eassy to get lost in the relationship.
I've learned to balance my relationship by having my own goals, and goals in common with my boyfriend. He has his own friends and he likes to go out and spend time with the guys and I'm cool with that ' cause I do the same with my friends, but we agreed previously to be respectful and a being exclusive.
I had a couple of bad experiences where the relationships where unbalanced and I ended crying a lot, feeling fatigue for doing a lot for that person and feeling empty myself. Once I identified this problem I decided to change the way how I used to be in the relationships, and I started to do nice things  for me, to take care of my needs and treat me with love and respect, when you have a healthy self-esteem it's easier to enjoy your relationship, 'cause you do things for each other and you spent quality time together but you also have your own life and you feel happy there. There's no rush, pressure, and is eassy to talk and share affection.