Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back - Akira the Don

The first chapter I have in my book

Is called

«Stand Up Straight with your Shoulders Back»

And it’s an injunction

To be combative

Not least to further your career let’s say

But also, to adopt

A stance of ready engagement with the world

And to reflect that in your posture

I kind of have an affinity for lobsters

When a lobster loses a fight

It kind of crunches down

So it looks smaller

When he wins the fight, he stretches out, looks bigger

And so, he’s signaling

To other lobsters

The tally of his victory

So, you think well so what

The lobster runs on serotonin

Neurochemical

And if the lobster loses the serotonin levels go down and if he wins the

serotonin levels go up

And when the serotonin levels go up

He stretches out

And he’s a confident lobster

And one of the

Consequences of that is if a lobster loses a battle

And you give ‘em

The equivalent of antidepressant

Then he stretches out and go fight again

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stan-Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

So, anti-depressants work on lobsters

And you think «Well, who cares?»

It’s like, no-no-no

You don’t get it

We diverged from lobsters from an evolutionary perspective

350 million years ago

And it’s the same circuit

It’s absolutely unbelievable

And that shows you how deep inside you

How basic

How primordial that circuit is in you

That’s sizing other people up

And looking at where they fit

In the hierarchy

The idea of the hierarchy is at least 350 million years old

And so, I read that and I think

Well, so much for the idea that

Human hierarchies are a socio-cultural construct

It’s like no

That’s wrong

It’s not just a little bit wrong it’s unbelievably wrong

It is mindbogglingly wrong

Lobsters have hierarchies

That’s a third of a billion years ago

Okay, that’s not a social construction

It’s part of being itself

And if you only see a hierarchy as

Power

And tyranny

Then you’re looking at the world wrong

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stan-Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

So, this basically says

I’m open to the world

But what it also says is

I can handle being open to the world

So, it signifies competence and confidence

The deepest Christian idea

Is that

You should accept the vulnerability of being

That’s the acceptance of the crucifixion

You’re at the X

Where all the suffering takes place

You’re going to whine about that?

And get resentful and bitter about it

Or you gonna say

Bring it on

I can handle it

No matter what it is

And the idea is that

If you can do that you will transcend the tragedy

And it’s like

Well, could that be true?

Well, you admire the courageous

So well, how courageous can you get?

That’s the question

How courageous can you get?

Well, you practice

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stan-Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

Stand up straight

With your shoulders back

If you want to present yourself to the world

In a manner that

Doesn’t disgrace you in some sense

You don’t want to disgrace yourself

Because the consequence of disgrace is emotional disregulation

More pain

Less positive emotion

And so, the way to present yourself is to stand up

Forthrightly

And to stretch out

You know, and to occupy some space

If you straighten up

And you present yourself in that manner then other people are more likely to

take you seriously

And that means they’ll start treating as if you’re a number one lobster

Instead of a number 10 lobster

Because one of the general rules of thumb about how to be successful

Is to

Confront things that frighten you forthrightly and with courage

And that’s kind of a universal strategy for success

And so that’s what the first chapter is about