I’ve Tried Everything and Nothing is Working… Help!

Disregarding extreme cases, I hear the phrase “I’ve tried everything and nothing is working,” and it makes me want to throw on an ugly sweater and have a little heart to heart, Cliff Huxtable style.

Definitely an ugly sweater... but it could be uglier. :)

If you’ve tried everything, then you would be where you want to be. 

I wasn’t getting email responses back from literary agents and publishers on the fantasy novel I’m working to sell, so I decided to go to a writers conference to try something new (and got an agent interested in my book. #booyah). I wasn’t happy with how my brain was working and my mood, so I got into therapy.

Our efforts on just about anything is research-based and our desired outcome usually falls under a need in some combination of: support, mentorship, networking, self-study, academic study, testing, or personal development.

Rarely does it fall under an acknowledged lack of effort. You don’t know what you don’t know. But you can keep searching for a new angle. 

Instead of trying everything, take a breather and try something different, maybe a little out of your comfort zone. If you don’t know your next step, look for others in a similar situation as you and ask the different steps it took to get where they got today. And if you really don’t know, you can always ask me and if I can’t point you in the right direction, I’ll try to find someone who can. As always, I’d love to hear from you! Your response will be kept private.