Life is a giant game made up of small games
Trade hope for enjoyment and understanding. Hope is a result of taking life too seriously. You're attached to an outcome. It's when you're attached to a specific outcome that you're likely to stubbornly keep doing the same thing, head-butting against a brick wall.
Until a) you randomly find something that works on the first try (unlikely) or b) you get bored or frustrated and you quit (what happens most of the time).
Life is a giant game that has a ton of smaller games. These games have rules. Not the rules made by someone else you're supposed to follow, but the inherent, emergent rules of the game itself. Understand and play by those rules is how you can win and enjoy these games, and ultimately, life.
You won't always win but if you understand the rules and play by them, you're likely to win more often. Any way, the result is secondary. It's the process that matters. How you actually play the game.
In short, focus on understanding the rules of whatever game you decided to play to the best of your ability, then play by those rules. Anything else is a losing endeavor and a waste of time.