Author and Speaker Matthew Cossolotto Offers Potent Personal Empowerment Advice for 2025: Turn New Year's Resolutions into New Year's Promises
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OBERLIN, Ohio & BRUSSELS - OhioPen -- Matthew Cossolotto – author of The Joy of Public Speaking  and the forthcoming Embrace Your Promise Power – offers the following advice for the fast-approaching New Year:

"Don't bother making New Year's Resolutions. They simply don't work. Various surveys have shown that most resolutions are abandoned within a few weeks. In fact, the second Friday in January is now called "Quitter's Day" because that's when roughly 80% of people give up on their resolutions. In 2025, Quitter's Day falls on January 10th. So, I offer the following personal empowerment life hack: Turn New Year's resolutions into New Year's promises. Why? Because a promise is more powerful, more binding than either a resolution or a goal."

Cossolotto believes that a promise is like a goal or resolution on steroids. It comes from the heart, whereas goals and resolutions are more cerebral. "By making a heartfelt promise to yourself, to a deity, or to someone you care about," asserts Cossolotto, "people some emotional skin in the game. They feel more accountable. Their integrity is on the line."

A Promise to His Mother
In his books, workshops, and other Personal Empowerment Programs (PEPTalks), Cossolotto describes a life-changing promise he once made: "I made a promise to my mother on her deathbed that I would finish writing a book she had been encouraging me to write and dedicate it to her memory. With tears in her eyes, she said: 'You do that, Matthew. You do that. This makes me very happy.'"

Cossolotto knew right away that failure was not an option, that he had crossed the proverbial Rubicon. There was no turning back or making excuses.

"I'm proud to say I kept that promise," continues Cossolotto. "Doing so put me on my current path as a personal empowerment author, speaker, and coach. My mission is to spread the power of making a promise to millions of people around the world."

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Success Is An Inside Job
As part of his speaking and coaching business, Cossolotto recently launched a new website (www.MatthewCossolotto.com), complete with a demo video and a lineup of Personal Empowerment Programs (PEPTalks). His overriding goal is to help his audiences and clients replace negative, disempowering habits of thought with positive, empowering mindsets. This approach applies to all three "power tools" in his Triad Empowerment System – Habits / Speaking / Promises.

The Joy of Public Speaking: Turn Stage Fright Into Stage Delight
Cossolotto urges experienced, novice, and terrified speakers to make a New Year's promise to improve their public speaking skills in 2025. "It's widely understood that effective public speaking skills are key for career advancement and leadership enhancement," says Cossolotto. "It's also a crucial tool for personal empowerment. The single best thing you do to boost your potential for success and personal fulfillment is to become a more comfortable, compelling, and joyful speaker. That's why I focus on the mindset shifts needed to turn stage fright into stage delight. People who learn to enjoy public speaking tend to be better at it than those who are hampered by anxiety, trepidation, or outright terror."

The Joy of Public Speaking is the first book in Cossolotto's personal empowerment trilogy. Two additional books are planned for publication in the near future. Harness Your HabitForce highlights the seven habits of FAILURE and SUCCESS. Embrace Your Promise Power features an extensive foreword by Jack Canfield, author of The Success Principles and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul^® series.

As Canfield writes in his foreword to Cossolotto's Embrace Your Promise Power: "When Matthew first told me about the heartfelt promise he made to his mother… I was hooked. There was something very attractive, almost magnetic, about this concept. And I say that as somebody who has been intimately involved in the personal development field for many years. I've seen and heard just about everything… With a promise your heart and emotions are fully engaged. Because of this, a promise is what I call a personal empowerment 'twofer.' It combines The Power of Intention with The Law of Attraction."

John Assaraf, a best-selling author and renowned personal development expert, agrees with Canfield about the power of a promise.  "There is something uniquely powerful about making a promise that goes beyond traditional goal-setting," Assaraf says. "Setting a promise takes it to a new dimension. We are neurologically wired to keep our promises."

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Oprah Winfrey's Promise to Nelson Mandela
A case in point is the promise Oprah Winfrey made to Nelson Mandela. On a visit to South Africa in 2000, Oprah made a promise to Mandela that she would build an academy for underprivileged girls in South Africa. She pledged to donate $10 million for the project. When it was finally completed in 2007, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls had cost Oprah $40 million. Despite cost overruns and other complications, Oprah was determined to keep her promise. In the middle of the project, she explained to CNN why she didn't abandon the costly project: "I made a promise to Madiba (Mandela's nickname), and I intend to keep it."

NATO Members Promise to Defend Each Other
Another example is the solemn promise described by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on July 9, 2024, at the NATO 75th Anniversary Celebratory Event in Washington, DC:

"Seventy-five years ago, in this very room, NATO's founding document, the Washington Treaty, was signed. Our Alliance was created by people who had lived through two devastating world wars. They knew only too well the horror, the suffering, and the terrible human cost of war. They were determined that this should never happen again. So, they founded NATO. With a clear purpose: To preserve peace and safeguard freedom. A solemn promise. An iron-clad commitment to protect each other. One for all, and all for one."

Cossolotto comments on the power of a promise generally: "Fortunately, the power of a promise is something all people can readily access. And they can easily do so by turning goals and resolutions into heartfelt promises. Making a promise is a secret weapon in our personal empowerment arsenal. If people really want to make positive changes in their lives in 2025 and beyond – lose weight, get fit, travel, start a business, find that dream job, learn a foreign language, quit smoking, or write a book – the first step is to make a heartfelt promise. This unleashes an irresistible force that will help them follow through. Remember this: People can change a goal or resolution, but they can only break a promise. And most people are loath to break their promises."

More About Matthew Cossolotto
Cossolotto's high-level leadership communications career spans the corridors of power and influence on both sides of the Atlantic. He served as a speechwriter for top officials at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and for the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also worked as a legislative assistant for Congressman Leon Panetta. In addition, he has coached and penned speeches for many corporate and academic leaders – from the Chancellor of UCLA to CEOs and other senior executives at GTE (now Verizon), AT&T, IBM, Pepsi-Cola, MasterCard, LaFarge, and many more.

As a guest speaker and workshop leader, Cossolotto has shared his ideas and expertise with a wide range of domestic and international audiences, including corporations, associations, government agencies, conferences, schools, community groups, and nonprofits/NGOs.

To book Matthew Cossolotto as a speaker or speech coach, visit www.MatthewCossolotto.com.