I’ve tried everything and nothing works

One of the most pernicious lies we can tell ourselves about our creative work is that we’ve tried everything and nothing works.

Have you ever felt that kind of hopelessness before?

If so, welcome the club. It absolutely sucks. Few experiences are more demoralizing than feeling like you’ve exhausted all your options.

During a particularly frustrating job hunt in my thirties, I spent six months looking for work, only to be rejected over a thousand times by hiring managers, recruiters and human resource directors. It felt like I had tried everything and nothing worked. Not exactly easy to maintain positive outlook in that situation.

But looking back, rather than beating myself up about trying everything, a smarter approach would have been zooming out. Widening my lens to get perspective on the complete picture of my situation. Deepening my sense of emotional proportion.

Maybe then new solutions would have presented themselves.

Because when it comes to alleviating suffering and achieving our creative goals, of course not everything works for everybody. Each of us has to find the tools that are best suited for our personality, values and needs.

The good news is, there is nobody for whom nothing works. There are solutions for everyone. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of expanding our repertoire.

One of the core reasons I’ve developed the discipline of personal creativity management is to give people a toolkit with such depth and breadth, that they would never feel hopeless. That there would never come a situation with their creative lives in which they had tried everything and nothing worked.

In fact, think about the words themselves: You tried everything.

Really? Everything? All the things? Do you know how much that actually is?

And, nothing worked? Really? Nothing? Not a single shred of success?

Using extreme, black and white language like this is the first problem. Because nobody has tried everything and exhausted all their options. Not even me, the most prolific person around.

Take mindsets, for example. Within the personal creativity management toolkit, a mindset is defined as any fixed disposition that determines responses to situations.

You’re telling me you’ve tried every mindset to improve your creative practice, and nothing worked? That’s hard to believe. There’s tons of them, like assumptions, attitude, beliefs, decisions, filters, intentions, mantras, mediations, perceptions and permissions. If one of those doesn’t work to troubleshoot your issue with the creative process, then maybe the tools aren’t the problem.

I have a neurologist friend whose patients occasionally claim they’ve tried everything, and nothing works. He lovingly reminds them that there are over one hundred prescription medications for migraine prevention, each of which takes an average of twelve years for an effective trial.

That’s more than a thousand years. An entire millennium dedicated to solving their specific problem. Certainly one of the solutions will work.

And so, maybe the core issue here isn’t about trying everything. It’s committing to something.

If you’re still feeling creatively blocked and hopeless to find your way back, spend a few minutes browsing the tools.

Prolific has over three hundred battle tested solutions for every possible issue in the creative professional’s work.

You’re not alone, and all hope is not lost.

Are you reinforcing the belief that you’re screwed just to justify things not working out?