You Just Need to Change the Lightbulb

This awesome photo came from Etsy artist Lense Cat

Have you ever had a light-bulb experience?  You know the kind; where you come up with this amazing idea and you can visualize it perfectly in your head.  Your excitement and energy soars and you spend hours, maybe even days, creating this "light-bulb idea" just to have the final finished product be, well not exactly a masterpiece?

This has happened to every creative soul out there, don't be discouraged.  And while in all honesty I too have found this terribly discouraging, I now realize this is called "the creative process".  Most artists never create a masterpiece on their first try.  Often this "light-bulb idea", if fostered, continues down a path, taking turns here and there.  It took me a while to learn this, and once I did I noticed that my work grew over time and got better.

Let's think about this light-bulb analogy again.  Have you ever had a room where when you go to turn on the light, your anticipating something, maybe a bright glow.  You flip the switch only to be disappointed; instead the room is too dull and maybe a bit dreary.  If you have the wrong wattage bulb the light is not going to do it's job; it's going to make the room either too bright and florescent, or too dark.  The room might be fine, really beautiful actually, but if the light is wrong, the feel of the whole room suffers.

And so in this example, should we throw out the entire room?  No, that's absurd.  The same might be said for your "light-bulb idea".  Don't scrap the idea.  Rather, play with the wattage.  Maybe you just need to change a light-bulb and soon your idea will shine!