I'm an attorney at law(l).
When you just walk out of the courtroom, knowing you've pleaded your case to the best of your ability with a satisfied client at your side (bonus points if you've won your case, of course), whatever hurdles life throws at you tend to be put into perspective.
I know several other lawyers, and some judges as well, who definitely aren't lookers either. Some are NW5-7, a few are shorties (one is even a midget), one smokes so much that his skin looks like parchment, etc., yet people all around them hold them in such high esteem that all these flaws don't even factor in. As a side note, lawyers in continental Europe don't function quite the same as their cousins in the US or even UK - they're not the "minions of evil" American lawyers are famous for.
Some might think it's just a fleeting feeling: it isn't. Your professional achievements, along with all that comes with them, become a second skin. It's always there to remind you that no matter what society could think of you - whether you'd be too short, too pale, too bald, too skinny, too fat, too old or what have you - it doesn't just affect you less than it could, but it actually doesn't get held against you. Think of it as some kind of halo effect you can control to some extent.
Is working out coping? Is working hard to get a good job coping? Is developing an interesting personality coping? I'd rather think of whatever you do to improve yourself as just becoming a better person. And good people matter in this shitty world, no matter what they look like.