Barbara, Thank you for your reply. I had not thought of it that way ... but you are right, many of us are conditioned to think that way. It reminds me of something I read in one of Dr. Wayne Dyer's books that goes like this, "We judge ourselves on our intentions but we judge others on their actions." Thank you for stopping by!

Hi Working Girl, Thank you for your thoughtful post! Yes, I agree, we should all hold high expectations for ourselves. And, I also agree with what you have to say about how we moderate our expectations to others. I'm very much looking forward to reading your book and I thank you for your time spent here!

Leslie, Thank you for your post. You are so right. It is about being fully present. When we are fully present we can only experience what is happening right now without past hurts or future wants. You hit it right on the head!

Hey, Joe ... sorry I didn't reply sooner. Michele is right, you can make it so that any card you send from SendOutCards looks like it was actually handwritten by you. They've made an incredible amount of improvements to their system over the past year. I've been using SOC for nearly 4 years now and highly recomment it! I do still like to send an ecard, though, for an immediate touch because that will show up in their inbox instantly, where the SOC card will take several days to make its way in the mail. Because of that, I use both systems.

Hi Julia, I did want to make this a learning situation. Many of us are also looking for speaking engagements to promote our businesses or our "expert" status. Sometimes, I think we can learn more from the "what not to do" lessons in life for they so stongly illustrate the consequences of our actions. My hope is that everyone who reads this will make a mental note to be totally prepared with a value proposition any time and anywhere that they decide to make a request for a speaking engagement.

I agree, Betsy, with the idea that we need to focus in where we can really make an impact with people through building relationships. The Social Media Frenzy has us all running around buzz kissing the air. For me, I want to slow down and spend time getting to know people - just like in the real world of face to face networking. When I get a pair of those glasses, I'll see if we can get Michele Bayle Zeman at Wink Eyewear to make you a duplicate set!