Keep Going
The best advice I can give any candidate (or myself) is KEEP GOING. It's frustrating at first, but if you keep at it, I promise it will get easier. And if you give up, it will get harder. You have to constantly practice.
They say that the CISSP is a foot deep and a mile wide. Yes, I found that to be true. However the CCIE R/S is ten feet deep and ten miles wide. It is daunting. But if you chop it into bite-sized chunks, you can get through it. However, you can't start and stop - you have to practice, practice, practice.
The recommended reading list for the CCIE R/S Track is 3 feet high. I bought the entire list from Cisco Press at a substantial discount a few years ago. When it arrived, I piled the books end-to-end and measured them. 3ft. And yes, I forced myself to read each and every book cover-to-cover. I still have all of them. And by the time I got to the last one, I know I did not remember everything from the first one. However, there was some information that remained. Then I read the Written Exam Guide. And each chapter was much easier to digest and remember - having read an entire book on the topic.
It requires repetition. That's how you get it down pat. That's how you build on speed. It doesn't come overnight. And it doesn't come without a lot of work.
Let me prepare you for the emotional roller-coaster ride that you will find as you ready yourself for the lab. You will be proud that you passed the Written. And pat yourself on the back for that - it IS an accomplishment. However, you don't know everything (yet). Go through the videos (at your study vendor of choice). They will bore you. Then start working the configuration and troubleshooting labs. Now you realize you don't know a damn thing. Go back to the videos. They're not so boring anymore. You'll notice that you will catch on to totally different things than you did before. Now you're watching with an eye towards understanding and configuring rather than remembering. You can't remember it all. But you can practice. And that's where it starts becoming easier. Notice I didn't say "easy" but used the comparative term.
Once you start knowing some things, you'll expect yourself to know everything all at once. It doesn't work that way. It seeps into you on its own pace. Don't give up. There will be times when you will need to peek at the answers. Do it. You do yourself no favor by struggling until you get it. You will merely waste time and frustrate yourself. If you need to look, look at the solutions and then implement them. Then go back the next day and do it again. Move to the next part. Do that - and look at whatever solutions you need as you are practicing. Go back and do the first thing again. Can you do it right now without looking at the solution? Maybe not. If not, practice it again. Then move onto the second thing and practice that again. Each time you perform a task, it will get easier. Perhaps you may run through it the second time and look at the solution and implement it faster. Perhaps you may run through it the third time and not have to look at the solution. It doesn't matter how many times you need to look at the solution - as long as you keep practicing until you learn it well enough to not need to look at the solution.
If you get stuck, don't stay there. Move onto something else. Give yourself a break with a different section of material. Then go back to it. If it still stumps you, move to another thing. Then go back again. If you start getting bored or start dragging your feet - change it up. Switch back and forth between configuration and troubleshooting. You have to know both for the lab. And those two sections require different tactics and mind sets.
Configuration requires you to think about how things work properly - given a scenario, implement something a certain way. Troubleshooting requires you to think about how things break. When you think about how things break, you have to cover how they should be configured and what could go wrong. Part of that is detective work, the other part is a sharp and critical eye. Once you start catching the scenario's intentional mistakes, go back to configuring. Now when you're configuring, if it doesn't work - troubleshoot as though you were working a troubleshooting scenario. Now the material starts feeding upon itself and building faster. Keep going and you will get there.
While you are doing this, practice taking your ego out of the way. That may be the hardest part of the process. None of us got into networking because it was easy. We all want to be LAN/WAN gods and goddesses. We all want to be the one with the answer that makes it all work. The reason we have worked so hard to learn things like subnetting and routing protocols is so that we can someday have magical superpowers. And quite a few of us have had a long streak of success. That's how we got here.
Guess what? Your streak may be over. You may have passed every written test from A+ to MCSE to the CCIE Written on your first shot. This lab is different. Very different. Prepare yourself for that. Of course, there are a few people who do pass on their first attempt. Very few. Not something to count on - and if you expect that of yourself, you will never become a CCIE. You will either study forever and never take the lab, or you will quit after your first failed attempt.
In order to become a CCIE, you have to accept that you are not perfect. You make mistakes (yes, even typos). You have to study hard and practice a lot for a long time. And then you have to be brave and sit for the lab. Do your best - without expectations. You will probably not pass your first attempt. If you come to grips with this, you can view your first shot as a learning experience and use it to your advantage. Study as much as you can and then attempt the lab before the 18 month mark. Granted, you may not be totally ready. You don't have to be totally ready. Your first attempt will prepare you better for your successful attempt. Know as much as you can and learn as much as you can from your first shot. Then go back and double your efforts so that your next attempt is more successful. Realize that you might not pass on your second attempt, but you probably will do better. Remember - your goal is not to pass the lab. Your goal is to get your CCIE number. Know that each attempt is bringing you one step closer to that goal. If you prepare yourself for non-perfection, you will strive to do your best until you succeed. You will not let the results of any particular lab stop you or get you down. It's just another step along the path. Eventually you will get there - if you keep going.