The life cycle of an Idea

"Then, he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea."

I have one too:) But I'm not ready to say just what it is yet; the early stages of an idea are so fragile. And so much of the time the thing you are so excited about never works out, or at least not like you wanted it to. It's funny how, you can be anywhere, doing anything, and all of a sudden your brain makes that one crucial micro-nueral connection without any concious help from you, and BAM! You are so impressed and plased with your clever self for thinking of something so spectacularly original that you let your mind run through all the delicious possibilities...savour them, savour the feeling, because the idea high only lasts for so long before the realities of it kick in. Is it really that great? Is it even feasible? Doubt starts to kick in, and boy, does it kick hard. Now you're thinking of everything that is wrong, could go wrong, will go wrong. If you make it past this part, you're halfway there. You start thinking again; maybe this is possible or, if you're a determined sort of person, I will make this possible. And God help anyone who gets in your way! Now you are thinking and planning and doing, putting your idea into action, gathering skills and information and materials; then it's time to let your precious baby go and see what happens, one of two things. It will either work, or it won't. If it does, congratulations! You did what you set out to do and you should be proud.

But what about when it doesn't?

That is when you have a choice: call the thing and yourself a failure, and leave it at that, remembering, the next time you have another brilliant idea, that the last one work didn't work out, even though you put all that time and effort into it, so why should this one? You push it aside and go back to your crantini, thinking about the unfairness of it all, and you sit there; and nothing happens. Or: you say allright, so it didn't work out. I did what I could, except...and then you see what went wrong, the flaw that you overlooked, the one piece that tripped you up...and you fix it. Congratulations; you've discovered the secret to getting everything you ever wanted.

(Now, don't tell me I have to spell it out for you. If you are reading this thinking "What? What is it? She didn't say!", then perhaps you should read it again, keeping one thing in mind: This is not about me; it's about you.)

--Lyra