Stop trying. Stop struggling. Instead:
- Read a novel. Thriller, classic, whatever. Somewhere an author has a character solving your problem.
- Write extensively in old battered notebooks. Deep in your brain the synaptic pathways can knit to solve it. Simply give them a chance.
- Go to a library. Choose books at random. Flick pages at random.
- Cook. Smells of spices and textures of pastry will kick-start the solution machine.
- Laugh. A lot. No more than that. There you go: easy to crack that one.
- Go the gym and pump iron. An exhausted body will give up the solution.
- Walk.The rhythm, the heart rate extended, the mind distracted. The solution manifests.
- Look deep into her eyes. The soul can hide very little.
- Meditate on the subject.
- Google/Bing it. But go beyond page 1.
- Draw the problem, even though you cannot draw.
- Re-listen to the lyrics of the greatest songs. Sinatra, The Beatles and Petrovich Mussorgsky have the very way forward you seek.
- Listen again to the advice you were given but you ignored. Yep: it's good advice.
- Ask yourself: if I had to solve it in the next 120 seconds, what would I do? Mmm, it wasn't a toughness issue. It was a procrastination issue.
BONUS: You, Only Better