For me it was turning off the negative-self-hating loop playing over and over in my mind. It was so much a part of my thought process is was like Muzak in an elevator but only instead of Girl from Ipanema it was Your a loser and everyone knows it. As long as I kept doing that no accomplishment or compliment was going to matter anyway.
How I did it was I decided to forgive everyone who had treated me unfairly and in exchange I would get forgiveness for my stupidity. Then I decided to raise my freak flag and refuse to defend myself. When those thoughts creep back in I tell myself "hey, we have a deal."