Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps means to improve your situation by your own efforts. The origin of this phrase isn’t known. It refers to boots and their straps and to lifting oneself off the ground by pulling on one’s bootstraps. This metaphor shows the effort of getting out of a difficult situation by one’s own efforts. It was known by the early 20th century. James Joyce alluded to it in Ulysses, 1922: “There were others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps.” http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/290800.html

“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”Thurgood Marshall

I feel as if I have tugged on my own bootstraps…