Be Like a Matryoshka Doll
The Influential Leadership Message
To ensure your resolutions stick—be STRATEGIC.
Be a two-percenter!
(New Year’s) Resolutions
It is the time of New Year’s resolutions.
Some resolutions are just fun things that we share with family and friends, while others are life changing and life-improving. (Who purposefully makes resolutions for their life to be worse?)
Ninety-eight percent of New Year’s resolutions hardly live beyond weeks rather than becoming new life-long behaviours. Surveys suggest that about 50% of adults make serious New Year’s commitments, while less than 10% of us make them stick for a year, and even fewer ingrain them as permanent new behaviours.
The case is similar for life decisions in general—there is a sharp drop-off in sticking to our commitments, especially ones that aim at a new way of living, including that of Leadership practices.
Be a Two-percenter: Those who Make Resolutions Stick
Why is the failure rate so high?
Why do so many people fail their resolutions, and so easily?
(Yes, we fail our resolutions, not them us!)
In our first series of Leadership Notes for 2025 we point towards how we can ensure our resolutions stick.
For detailed discussions you can refer to the Alpha Programme, which you can access here.
The Matryoshka Doll
The Russian-originated Matryoshka Doll is our imagery and metaphor to illustrate how to succeed at ensuring decisions stick (effective decision-making).
Everyone knows the ‘Russian’ dolls—the brightly painted wooden figurines that fit one inside the other (or is it one outside the other?).
They are like mini-me’s of mini-me’s of mini-me’s… The record number is a set of 51!
Be Strategic
One of the Influential Leadership System’s Behavioural Attributes is being STRATEGIC.
- Be strategically conscious. This is what happens in your mind, first. To realise the big, enduring and meaningful things in your life you need to set up long-term goals and plans, with consequent actions in mind—imagine the neatly fitting series of Matryoshka Dolls, all 51 of them. If your goals, plans and actions are erratic and inconsistent they will not make up a decent Matryoshka…
- Be strategic. This is the practice, the consistent behaviour that flows from your strategic consciousness. In other words, align and reinforce what you do moment-by-moment, month-by-month and year-by-year to achieve your long-term goals in your personal life, your relationships, home, work, play and community.
Matryoshka Dolls, layer by layer, accommodate each other. Their individual expressions and colours might vary, but the core shape and relative sizes must be consistent. There is congruence and alignment. They stick together from #1 to #51.
In Practice
So, in practice, what does ‘to be strategic’ mean for making resolutions stick?
- Think it through. Create a firm and robust goal of what your resolution (decision) will lead to and result in (the desired outcome). What is the benefit of achieving the goal? Keep the goal in mind and fresh as you go along your journey. Decide how many Matryoshka you are going to carve before you start.
- Start. The first steps set you up for the rest of the journey. Far-away goals tend to be a bit fuzzy on the horizon so start off with vigour and mental clarity and then as you progress and get closer to the goal it becomes ever clearer and more tangible. We start with the biggest Doll, then work downwards.
- Link your smaller actions. Think of the line of Matryoshka dolls. The largest one is clearest, diminishing as they get smaller. However, the largest one sets the strategic goal that the rest of the mini-me’s follow. All your actions must align and be consistent over the long term.
Why is it Important to Make Resolutions Stick?
Success feels good. There is the obvious answer—to enjoy the success of achieving what you set out to do—to make your life better (with others).
Strengthening your self-efficacy. The less obvious element is even more valuable. When you succeed along a chosen path you create a virtuous cycle, i.e., your success breeds your success! This is a strategic feedback loop for your self-efficacy, which works as follows. The repeated achievement of what you set out to do reinforces your absolute belief in your capability to succeed at what you aim for.
Whether it is your New Year’s Resolution or your other commitments and decisions—make them stick by being STRATEGIC. Be a Two-percenter!
Best Influential Leadership Wishes for 2025 and beyond.
Regards,
Colin @ Karoo
Influential Leadership is Strategic!
Leadership Note # 0125 | 060125
e: colind@karoo.world
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