HABBITS

David Kirsch is founder of the Madison Square Club in Manhattan. He began his professional life as a Litigation Lawyer and realised his calling to become a Wellness Trainer 20 years ago. Today, David spreads his time between training sessions with his clients, presenting at international wellness conventions.

Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Learned behavior is exactly that – ‘learned behavior’ and the good news is that we can do something about habitual behavior that no longer supports us if we set our minds to it.

Take a moment to think about those habits, which make you wonder why you continue to honor them? These could be procrastination, not completing tasks, not keeping a personal promise, drinking and eating too much, knowingly being a pleaser personality, skipping workouts because you choose to work longer in the office, nibbling on high-calorie foods, comfort/binge eating, lazy communication (emailing your colleague sitting next to you rather than good old-fashioned talking), eating quick-grab carbs because you think you’re too busy to eat. Make a private note of yours and decide which ones you want to release. The easy part is this. To unlearn a behavior you have to identify the seat of the cause and dig deep into some self-work and core inner thinking. For example, someone makes us feel stressed and then we turn to comfort eating or drinking to alleviate the stress. It is how we choose to interpret the action and react that makes us stressed - Difficult day in the office? Awkward client or colleague? Ask yourself if it will matter in a month, a year? Learn to identify and then minimise all triggers for self- sabotaging behavior. Unless you are totally unique and know your crystal ball is giving you enough time in the future to then decide to be who you want to be. Think and be mindful with every action and reaction you make and take. Take stock and stop when you feel a curve ball coming your way. Learn to duck. It’s insane, very un-empowering and absolutely not authentic to choose to hide behind ‘less-than’ behavior. I want you to add sound thinking to your wellness goals. For every one annoying or unsupportive habit you have, chances are people close to you will find a few more for you to acknowledge and work on if you ask! Go for it!

Where did some of your habits come from?
Well, take a good think on this. What behavior standards were you raised with? We are at our most impressionable at an early age. Chances are that some of your habits will have been formed subconsciously from family behavior: punctuality, or lack of it, manners, basic etiquette, courtesy, and attitude towards moderation or gluttony, quality versus moderate or mediocre effort. Your habits should be the ones you create for yourself that don’t hold you back. Those you have inherited or borrowed along the way are not yours, so do yourself a huge favor and get rid of them. All unsupportive habits and behavior patterns will stop you from living a true and full life with purpose and meaning.

Time to do some headwork and legwork
Ask your family and close colleagues to tell you three habits they observe about you. Give them permission to tell you the truth! In a business world giving the right impression is vitally important. Then have an up close and very personal think about what your habits at work are actually saying about you. If your habitual behaviour were to be directly linked to how people assumed you felt about yourself and your self-esteem quotia, then be warned, you may be miles off.