The Importance of Family and Friends

• One good idea is to remind the audience of the importance of spending quality time with family and friends and encourage them to make this a priority for the new year. You can include your experiences with family and friends as a way to motivate the audience. For example, you could talk about how a few years ago your marriage and family almost fell apart because you constantly worked long hours and used your days off to do more work rather than be there for your spouse and children.
  
  

Ideas for Community Service

• Another good idea is to discuss ways that residents of your community can help others. For example, you could suggest that older couples reach out to younger couples by starting a support group; this could include financial and spiritual counseling as well as trips to conferences that help couples build strong relationships. Or you could suggest that business owners establish apprenticeship programs so high school students can learn a trade and earn extra money.
  
  

Money Management Tips

• If you're a financial planner or skilled at managing money, you can give a speech that helps listeners get their finances in order for the new year. You can discuss tips such as establishing an emergency savings account, avoiding multiple credit cards, ways to earn extra income, spending less than you earn and avoiding frivolous loans. After the speech, you can take questions from the audience about financial issues.
  
  

Political Predictions for the New Year

• You can also discuss the latest political issues and give your predictions for how they'll be resolved. To prepare for this speech, read news magazines, political journals and newspaper articles, then write down five major political issues that you can discuss. Avoid biased opinions about ethnic groups, religions, gender or political parties; you'll want to be objective as well as informative.