Comment by Someone

Staring blankly doesn’t help much. You have to direct your thoughts at approaches that are more likely to lead to success.

I think “How to solve it” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It) is worth reading to get an idea of what it might involve.

It has lots of hints on approaches that may teach you something about the problem at hand and eventually may help you solve it.