Encourage Yourself With Positive Self talk. Do first person, positive statements to yourself -- repeat these statements to yourself on a regular, ongoing basis. As David sat among the ruins of Ziklag and mutinous men spoke of stoning him, he had a choice. David could allow grief and bitterness to conquer him; he could sink into the black hole of depression and give up and quit. Or he could fight back. David looked around him, he saw nothing but discouraged and downcast men. David had no one to encourage him, so he had only one recourse: He "encouraged himself in the Lord his God".