I've always had beautiful penmanship in the past. I prided myself on clear, legible, and NOT GIRLY handwriting ever since I was in elementary school.

When I was working for my elementary teaching credential (stop laughing...it seemed like a good idea at the time), we were actually tested on our ability to write in four different styles...both on paper and on the blackboard. In one particular class, instead of turning in papers that had been typed or printed (ah, my old Mac Plus), we had to handwrite them. Every single page.

I think offering physical therapy for the hands of students in that program would have been a GREAT idea.

I practiced my "board writing" at home on giant sheets of butcher paper tacked to the walls of my apartment. I actually got pretty good at it, managing to limit the "upward slant" of my letters and not getting too much chalk on my butt when I was student teaching. (Chalk on my butt turned out to be the least of my worries at that point.)

Fast forward to today...I was hand writing a note to a new client this morning, thanking him for the opportunity to work together. I proceeded to rip up two personalized note cards because I was so unhappy with the way my handwriting looked. But how much of it was my penmanship, and how much of it was my perfectionist streak...worrying that he would judge me by my penmanship?

Even at its worst, I'm pretty sure my degenerating ability to write by hand is still more legible than that of most people. And perhaps I need to look at the big picture...a hand-written note is generally unexpected these days. It is the thought that counts.

And it is the "thoughts," and the relationships that build from those thoughts, on which I build my business - genuinely liking my clients, and taking the time to make a little difference...even if it is something as seemingly inconsequential as a hand-written thank you note.