Six Ways to Achieve Your Resolutions Through Public Speaking

Most New Year's resolutions are about health, fitness, money management, time management and ending bad habits like smoking. And more than half of people who make resolutions have given up by summer.

However, "people who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions."**

You may not explicitly make resolutions about public speaking, but here's how public speaking might enhance your 2008 resolutions.

1. Resolution: Get a better job/advance your career

Building public speaking skills can help build your career. You might wish to speak up more at work, or feel more confident when running staff meetings and delivering reports. You might want to get better at networking, develop leadership and communication skills, or provide in-house training to new employees.

Building public speaking skills, gaining confidence in your abilities and taking on new and more advanced roles at work can help you realize your goal of moving up in your field.

2. Resolution: Make more money/get out of debt

Get paid for speaking! You don't have to be a high-powered professional speaker traveling all over the world to make some cash doing it. Believe it or not, you have knowledge that people will pay for.

First, figure out what you know. What are your areas of expertise? What life experiences or stories can you share? How might you be able to help people with your knowledge? Be sure to focus on the benefits to your audience, not just the features (what you know).

Determine your target audience, and then figure out where you might find them. Where do they hang out? What do they read? What groups do they belong to? Start talking to your contacts and looking for events, trade shows, conferences, adult education programs and other venues that use paid speakers.

Finally, don't forget to re-package your materials into audio, video, e-books and other digital media that you can sell online or at the back of the room at speaking engagements. Before you know it, you'll have a nice side income from speaking.

3. Resolution: Volunteer for a local nonprofit