For as long as I can remember, I have always received feedback about my poor posture. My family members regularly pointed out that I have a hunchback posture and constantly told me to stand more upright. My bosses told me to sit properly when they caught me me at my desk folded like a deflated hot-air balloon. I had even looked up online resources to fix this, and I came to reason that it was a byproduct of my sedentary lifestyle and my weak back muscles. For a while, I was doing back exercises everyday. I even bought a neck massager to counteract the pain on my neck and my gradual transformation into a shrimp.

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered something that actually makes sense. It was an epiphany. My posture problem was never physical to begin with. It required a mental shift. It was deeply psychological.

“Stand up straight with your shoulders back” is actually the Rule #1 in Jordan Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life. Peterson writes:

Standing up means voluntarily accepting the burden of Being. To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open.

This resonated with me immediately because it mirrored a core belief that I picked up from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, which reads: “In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.” Yes, I am very in tune with these topics, on living the full life, authenticity and alignment.

On self-consistency

I have also recently encountered in the book Psycho-Cybernetics on theory of self-consistency. It posits that human behaviour is primarily driven by the individual’s need to maintain harmony with their inner beliefs and fundamental values. “Standing up straight with your shoulders back”, hence, struck me as pure alignment with what I believe in and how I operate, that I am someone who stands tall and faces the world. My nervous system and posture naturally followed to match that new mental state.

It is of no wonder to me then, that it is so damn hard to learn the things I don’t want to learn, and it is so damn easy to learn the things that I want to learn. The mind, body and spirit works as one*, and if one does not see a task to be in alignment with what one believes in, one would perform poorly in that task.

One awakening after another

Looking back, I realised that I needed to go through what I had to go through to reach this point. Nothing was actually wasted. It was all necessary. I had kept track of my yearly goals since 2021 but they mostly failed to be realised fully back then. Here is a recap.

  • 2021: Finding motivation, pursuing hobbies
  • 2022: (Somehow missing)
  • 2023: Career development, self-expression
  • 2024: All-encompassing - being people-oriented, abundance mindset, taking control, the joy of being, associating selectively, emotional regulation
  • 2025: Being proactive (steer the boat), finding the self, taking risks
  • 2026: Living with intention and authenticity, self-mastery, holistic lifestyle

This year is the most profound one for me. I have probably reached an apex, amongst many apexes to come. There is really no point in ruminating and blaming, but to press forward with courage and positivity. This is the best way to approach life.