Discouragement comes from one thing, and one thing only: thinking discouraging thoughts. Changing the content of one's thoughts changes the entire picture!
Discouragement often comes from one's limited self-image.
When you view yourself in a positive light and see what you've done as valuable and important, even though things didn't work out the way you were hoping, you still feel positive about the effort you put into doing something worthwhile. You know that effort is up to you; results are up to the Almighty. You realize that your own value and worth are constant, and then think about your new wisest course of action for now.
If you ever feel discouraged, you can say to yourself, "Right now I am feeling discouraged because of the thoughts that I am thinking. What are some wiser thoughts that I can think right now?"
Love Yehuda Lave
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The Change Addict
I still recall a time when people kept things new and forever. Drove the same car for decades. Wore the same jacket for twenty-five years. Lived in the family home for a lifetime. Went to the same holiday house for generations. Bought groceries from the same grocer, knew the fishmonger by name and went bowling every Tuesday night. Today, wear the same watch for longer than a season and you are viewed with pity, and hold a job for more than a year will earn you the epithet of 'loser'.
Why the change? Has commercialism incubated a consumer society? Has production inbuilt deliberate obsolescence? Have food additives and water toxicity mutated human nature?
Children's games no longer require the unforgivingly slow throw of the dice. Instead, touch-driven keyboards produce immediate screen effects. i-phones locate their prey uncannily and instantly, stimulating the receiver's heart via idiosyncratic tunes or electronic tags. Drugs alleviate boredom. Medications relieve McDonald's-induced indigestion. Sleeping pills turn off the lights of consciousness with escapist ease. Watch a 1970's movie and it moves ever so slowly. Read a classic and the lack of action is tortuously boring.
Our world worships change – fast change. And creation obliges. Nothing is still. Ever since G-d breathed the breath of life into the 
So what's new? The expectations are new. We are addicted to change. We crave change. We need the daily experiential fix – a new experience, a new sensual appeal, a titillation of our senses, an arousal of our autonomous nervous system, cortical alertness, stimulation overload. "I'm bored"'s threshold is a quantum leap beyond it's tipping point of a generation ago.
The cell phone beckons and the limbic system dances with emotions of expectancy, quickly reaching tidal wave proportions – someone cares about me, someone wants to connect to me, the world calls me with opportunity, the unknown, a special experience. Then the downer of yet another prosaic vendor of some useless service or product who somehow has you down on a never-ending spread-sheet. The greater the addiction, the greater the letdown.
Why are we so addicted? Because we are so alone, so insecure, so low self-esteemed. So we compensate, wanting to feel alive, vibrant, connected. Our core need is to satisfy the soul's reach through the labyrinth called the body. The soul quests its reincarnative journey – journeying emotions through relationships with people, with world, with G-d; journeying mind through curiosity, knowledge, discovery; journeying spiritually through belief, higher consciousness, One-ness.
Feeding the soul a nutritionally deficient 'diet' perverts its quest. Spiritual 'fast food' consist of sensual and titillating experiences simulating the real thing – but with disastrous consequences of 'indigestion' - depression, dependency, and despondency. The momentary addictive lift dissipates, leaving emptiness and void in its wake.
Change is opportunity. Addiction is a dead-end.
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