“Stand up straight”

Jordan Peterson (thankfully) decided that he needed to tell the world about his knowledge on psychology and the implications of using it to your advantage in real life. He wrote a book called 12 Rules for Life which can be bought at https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/0345816021. In this book, he addresses what he considered to be the most important things that a person can do in order to be healthy, happy, and strong. The first rule in the book is (simple enough) stand up straight and put your shoulders back. Although this may be a simple task, it has massive pros that go along with it.

Lobsters show their sense of self esteem by the way they carry themselves with their posture. A lobster who just won a fight against another lobster will stand up tall with his claws out for everybody to see. A lobster who lost a fight however, will put its claws down and whimper away. This is to show other lobsters their current status in the social dominance hierarchy. The same thing goes for humans as well. When a human feels defeated, they will put their head down and roll their shoulders forward (protecting vital organs from possible attack). If a human makes a point to walk with their head up and shoulders back, it will signal to the brain that the person is victorious and will boost serotonin levels making the person feel more confident and ready to take on the world. Since confidence is key in this day and age, this can be a very useful tactic to use on a day to day basis.

This is essentially the “fake it till you make it” theory. If you pretend to be confident for long enough, you really will become more confident. The body and mind take queues from each other all of the time. If we hack those queues, we can manipulate our mind and body to give ourselves the chance for optimal performance in life.