Put the peddle to the metal

Pretty amazing feeling, experiencing the first stage of my current - perhaps greatest - true north passion as completed.  I've successfully expressed my core goal for Cyber Access for the Technically Timid (CATT).  That might seem a no-brainer.  "You've been batting this around for over 15 years - you only just clarified it in your mind?!"

YES.

All anyone has to do is read last fall's crowdfunding request to see that I'd thrown a lot of different balls in the air.  They were all worthwhile, it's just that while all had grabbed my attention, I hadn't taken the time or the due diligence to determine which one or two grabbed my heart.

Although I was not consciously aware of how flub -a-dubbed I was, my True Self knew & shut me down.  Without realizing it, I shifted gears, going offline (except Facebook & an occasional peek at e-mail).  For five months, I immersed myself in reading.

I'd actually starting my reading jag back in the late fall, reading or rereading Brene Brown, devouring Glennon Doyle Melton, refamiliaring myself with Taming the Gremlin.  Marney Makridakis transformed my relationship with time. Came February, I hunkered down with John Tarnoff, Tim Ferriss, Sarah Pennypacker, Guy Kawasaki, Peter Guber, Doug Stevenson, Robert Grudin, Alexander Osterwalder,  Marie Clapsaddle, Abby Stokes, Chris Murray, Adam Steltzner, Milchael Miller & the awesome TODD HENRY.

It took me a while to realize my thinking had turned from personal to professional development.  Went down on my knees in gratitude at the number of exceptional books being written for creatives in business today.  (20 years ago, Guy Kawasaki was basically the only author equating business with flat-out FUN - and he's gotten even better & more passionate with the years.). I look at my reading table, at shelves to my left & right - books on business models & the power of storytelling, computer basics & translating passion & purpose into a compelling business plan.

They - and the many scores of books in bookshelves throughout the house - all helped boost me to this moment, where the vision part is DONE, the peddle-to-the-metal part begins.

"WHY?"

The WHY behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid is simple - freedom & choice.  Witha friendly person keyboarding at their every whim, an oldster elder or ancient once again holds the reins.

The impact isn't theoretical for me - experienced it 1st hand with my case study of one:  Mom.  At 85, a major medical crisis transformed her health from fairly robust to relatively frail.  Although she still got out more than most of her friends, putting even ones in their 70s to shame, she was definitely slower, more cautious & less likely to want to head out in icky weather.  For the first time, Mom found herself increasingly home bound.

Around this same time, a lively discussion in our church that engaged Mom's attention moved onto the internet.  Mom was hooked.  Although she hesitated to get her own e-mail address, she was an enthusiastic participant, writing under my address, using my tip-tapping skills to share her thoughts & experiences.

Would she have ever ventured out into cyber space without such a compelling spur?   I doubt it.  But once out there, she was a passionate participant.  But still under my address.  Until...

Until a sensitive situation with someone she loved spurred her to get her very own address.  I still keyboarded, but getting that separate address seemed to give Mom a fuller-throated voice, both online & in real life.  

Mom (always a great letter writer) took to social networking like a duck to water, using e-mails to share with an ever-expanding dist list stories, thoughts, small moments & big-hearted memories.  

In a way, Mom was blogging before blogging was cool!

Doing that took courage, guts & grit, because my older sibs each made it clear they did NOT like this Mom 2.0.  Her vignettes & musings weren't intimate or intrusively personal, but they were from a mother my sibs did not recognize & showed had no interest in getting to know. Yet, still she persisted.  

It's easy to feel shocked at my older sibs' resistance, but put yourself in their shoes.  

First off, they were all in their teens in the '50s, with an Eisenhower-era view of mothers being there for their family, not the reverse.  For ALL of their lives, Mom's only thought had been what they wanted, never what she needed. Just expressing her unique voice was experienced by them as a threat.  They asked her to stop; when she didn't, they distanced themselves from her life.  

And still she persisted.

Cyber Access for the Technically Timid is important because it opens new doors.  Mom went through ones that helped her become more the person she was when my father - her O Best Beloved - was alive. That was her experience; other people will have different doors opening, taking them in their own new directions.  It could be as simple as surfing the internet for fun places, listening to podcasts or TED talks, or shopping for a too-far-away grandchild's sixth birthday.  They may want to get in face time with far distant friends or even start their own blog! They could just want to e-mail an ever growing dist list.  It's up to them.

Choice & freedom:  the all-important, all-empowering WHY behind Cyber Access for the Technically Timid.

Mounting up with wings like eagles

5+ months since writing on this blog.  The GoFund!e crowdfunding request raised $150 online,  far from my $20,000 stretch goal.  That said, the request was a WILD success for gathering my energies together, letting them know that transforming CATT into hard-edged, real-time/real-life reality is not mere piffle on my part.  If getting them on board had been the only outcome of the request, laying myself bare with the GoFundMe request would have been worth it.  And I have $150 to put toward my website costs.

What calls to be done has less to do with funding, everything to do with grit, grace & gumption.  We are at the grunt work stage.  FINALLY!

Am starting a new blog, connected to my Wordpress website, but will still be checking in here.  The new blog will go with me as I put elbow grease & focused forward action behind my dream, but will keep checking back here.  This blog holds a lot of important insights, ahas & info of interest that's forever valuable.

Will check in next week to tell y'all what's afoot, what's accomplished, what beckons.