“If whatever you’re doing isn’t working, don’t do it harder.”
This applies in every area of life, but most of us don’t seem to realize it. Our cultural assumption is that doing things harder is the way out of confusion and into happiness. With a bit more elbow grease and a solid grip on our own bootstraps, we should be able to yank ourselves straight out of suffering and into a fabulous life.

— Sonja in Martha Beck, The Way of Integrity, Penguin Random House, Ch. Desperate for Success, p. 23, 2021