A Great New Year's Resolution - Improving your Communication Skills through Toastmasters

A scene from Bailey Toastmasters' recent holiday party. Meetings are free and open to the public, including reindeer!

This is the time of year when New Year's resolutions are made, and often broken soon thereafter! Most resolutions involve some sort of self-improvement, which, if they were easy to achieve, would have been achieved by now. But nothing in life worth anything is just given to us. It takes commitment and discipline to achieve worthwhile goals, two important attributes many of us struggle to maintain in our lives.

Well, here is one resolution that will take some level of commitment and discipline, but with the help of your local Toastmasters club is definitely achievable. No matter who we are, we can all benefit from improved communication skills. Even the best orators find ways to improve their speech content, speech delivery techniques and general presentation skills. Toastmasters provides a guided learning experience that will methodically help you work through improving your communication and leadership skills. Through Toastmasters you will develop and practice those skills in the safe, supportive environment of your club, working through projects and assignments that enable you to build real–world skills in a variety of disciplines. Toastmasters four guiding principles will help you achieve that New Year's resolution: experiential learning (giving prepared and impromptu speeches), peer feedback (evaluations), mentoring (guidance from more experienced members) and self-paced (based on your needs and abilities).

Learn more about Toastmasters by checking out a meeting. In Euclid, we meet every Thursday night at the Euclid Public Library from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Or better yet, visit us during our next Open House on Thursday, February 8th from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. We will introduce you to a typical meeting format, discuss the new Toastmasters Pathways Learning Experience, and provide refreshments. See you there! Visit www.3628.toastmastersclubs.org for directions and updates to meeting locations and times.