PUBLISHED EACH MONTH BY SHARON EAKES, HOPE UNLIMITED, LLC. FOCUS: Gifts from the heart Discipline: Personal Mastery "The greatest gift is a portion of thyself." -Ralph Waldo Emerson THOUGHTS Christmas, Hanukkah and Ayyam-i-Ha are just around the corner. This is the perfect time to plan gifts that cost less and say more: gifts from the heart. These are not the gifts you are likely to see on TV or those that populate the catalogues flooding into our homes this time of year. Sometimes gifts from the heart take a little time and imagination. If you start now, though, one of the joys you'll experience is that gifts from the heart are enrich the giver. With a little thought you can come up with perfect gift ideas for the big and little people you really care about. Here are some ideas. A Gift of Love Write a letter to a loved one, including all the reasons you love him or her. This will be treasured more than you can imagine! Gifts of Time Give a coupon for a special activity - a candlelight dinner, a massage, a trip to the zoo. Plan a monthly lunch date with an elderly relative or friend. Give a coupon for several hours of babysitting. Give a coupon to wash someone's car or house windows. Offer a particular talent such as photography, gardening, financial planning or hairstyling. Homemade Gifts Record interviews of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles on audio tape; you can ask them to discuss their memories of the recipient, or your family’s history, their favorite jokes, whatever! Package up material for hand puppets – brown lunch bags, googly eyes, scissors, markers, etc. Collect and bind a little book of favorite family recipes. Frame one of your best photographs. Gifts of Experience Offer to teach the recipient a skill you possess, such as canning tomatoes, salsa, knitting, wood carving, or doing the butterfly stroke. Gifts of Charity (See www.altgifts.com.) Donate to a cause in the name of the recipient. Sponsor a child refugee, support a homeless shelter or protect an acre of rainforest. COACHING TIPS Plan some gifts from the heart for people in your life – they work for Hanukkah, birthdays, and Ayyám-i-Há as well as Christmas! Give the book my husband and I just published, Liberating Greatness, a Whole Brain Guide to an Extraordinary Life. Read an excerpt at www.LiberatingGreatness.com. INVITATION Please join me for a 45-minute telegathering to talk more about gifts from the heart. We’ll talk about how to write that “love letter” to a spouse, a friend, a parent, a child. Call Tuesday, October 17 at noon Eastern (11:00 a.m. Central, 10:00 a.m. MT, 9:00 a.m. Pacific) 1-985-425-2620 X925 No need to register...just call at that time! TELECLASSES Calling for Action November 15, from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. the Greater Pittsburgh Coaches Association is offering a day-long virtual university of FREE teleclasses offered by conference call, specially designed by professional coaches as our gift to you. Each hour a different session will be offered. This entire day is devoted to helping you solve the issues that are important to you and move you toward living a more satisfying and fulfilling life. To find out more, go to www.greaterpittsburghcoaches.org. Reach me: 1-888-907-HOPE (4673)or e-mail sharon@hopellc.com. I am a personal and executive coach and would be happy to offer you a complimentary coaching session by phone. Each month FRESH VIEWS focuses on a single topic, relates it to one of the five disciplines of a learning community, and offers a coaching tip and a follow-up telegathering. Please forward it to friends and colleagues. My purpose in writing FRESH VIEWS is to nurture, prod and encourage readers to think and talk about these topics with their families, friends and colleagues. Mine is only one view. Multiple conversations may deliver us to insights only hinted at here. Such a process sustains the vitality of learning relationships, learning families, learning organizations and learning communities. Sharon Eakes | 720 Maple Lane | Sewickley, PA 15143