The first chapter I have in my book
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Is called
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«Stand Up Straight with your Shoulders Back»
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And it’s an injunction
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To be combative
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Not least to further your career let’s say
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But also, to adopt
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A stance of ready engagement with the world
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And to reflect that in your posture
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I kind of have an affinity for lobsters
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When a lobster loses a fight
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It kind of crunches down
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So it looks smaller
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When he wins the fight, he stretches out, looks bigger
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And so, he’s signaling
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To other lobsters
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The tally of his victory
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So, you think well so what
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The lobster runs on serotonin
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Neurochemical
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And if the lobster loses the serotonin levels go down and if he wins the
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serotonin levels go up
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And when the serotonin levels go up
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He stretches out
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And he’s a confident lobster
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And one of the
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Consequences of that is if a lobster loses a battle
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And you give ‘em
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The equivalent of antidepressant
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Then he stretches out and go fight again
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stan-Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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So, anti-depressants work on lobsters
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And you think «Well, who cares?»
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It’s like, no-no-no
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You don’t get it
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We diverged from lobsters from an evolutionary perspective
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350 million years ago
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And it’s the same circuit
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It’s absolutely unbelievable
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And that shows you how deep inside you
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How basic
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How primordial that circuit is in you
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That’s sizing other people up
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And looking at where they fit
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In the hierarchy
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The idea of the hierarchy is at least 350 million years old
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And so, I read that and I think
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Well, so much for the idea that
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Human hierarchies are a socio-cultural construct
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It’s like no
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That’s wrong
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It’s not just a little bit wrong it’s unbelievably wrong
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It is mindbogglingly wrong
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Lobsters have hierarchies
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That’s a third of a billion years ago
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Okay, that’s not a social construction
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It’s part of being itself
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And if you only see a hierarchy as
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Power
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And tyranny
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Then you’re looking at the world wrong
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stan-Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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So, this basically says
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I’m open to the world
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But what it also says is
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I can handle being open to the world
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So, it signifies competence and confidence
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The deepest Christian idea
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Is that
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You should accept the vulnerability of being
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That’s the acceptance of the crucifixion
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You’re at the X
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Where all the suffering takes place
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You’re going to whine about that?
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And get resentful and bitter about it
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Or you gonna say
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Bring it on
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I can handle it
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No matter what it is
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And the idea is that
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If you can do that you will transcend the tragedy
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And it’s like
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Well, could that be true?
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Well, you admire the courageous
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So well, how courageous can you get?
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That’s the question
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How courageous can you get?
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Well, you practice
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stan-Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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Stand up straight
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With your shoulders back
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If you want to present yourself to the world
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In a manner that
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Doesn’t disgrace you in some sense
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You don’t want to disgrace yourself
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Because the consequence of disgrace is emotional disregulation
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More pain
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Less positive emotion
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And so, the way to present yourself is to stand up
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Forthrightly
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And to stretch out
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You know, and to occupy some space
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If you straighten up
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And you present yourself in that manner then other people are more likely to
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take you seriously
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And that means they’ll start treating as if you’re a number one lobster
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Instead of a number 10 lobster
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Because one of the general rules of thumb about how to be successful
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Is to
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Confront things that frighten you forthrightly and with courage
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And that’s kind of a universal strategy for success
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And so that’s what the first chapter is about |