this is water david foster wallace there are these two very young fish
swimming along and they happen to
encounter an older and more experienced
fish that ask them how's the water today
young guys the two fish keep swimming
and eventually one fish says to the
other what the hell is water the point
of the story is that the most obvious
and important realities are often the
ones that are the hardest to become
completely aware of water represents our
human blind certainty to think that our
point of view is the absolute truth in
the universe and that everything is
somehow directly related to us water
represents a closed mindedness that
amounts to an imprisonment so total that
the prisoner doesn't even know he's
locked up because here's the thing most
of the things we are 100% sure about
tend to be wrong and delusional
we are totally certain that the root
cashier at the supermarket is an
uneducated and disrespectful person that
should not be treating us in a rude
manner or that a jerk that cut us off in
traffic is arrogant abusive and lacks
manners because he was just a few inches
away from colliding with us whether we
want it or not we immediately assign
meaning to those types of everyday
events these types of events are exactly
what happened every day to each and
every one of us and the thing is that in
those exact moments is when we have to
decide how we are going to think about
them but the problem is that our default
way of assigning meaning and of choosing
how to interpret them is so automatic
that we don't even have the time to
choose what to think about here is where
you will have to do the work of choosing
how to interpret them because if you
don't decide to choose other meanings
other than those directly related to you
every annoying event will end up eating
you alive that's why you must make the
conscious effort to decide what to think
about in order to escape your own
self-centered default settings your
default setting is to be arrogant
self-centered and to think that every
boring and annoying situation is about
you when you operate from this
programming it will seem that everybody
else is in your way
you will never be able to consider that
the route cashier is so exhausted that
she's easily irritated in addition her
life lacks more meaning that most people
could bear that she can no longer keep
working that soul-sucking job and that
makes her unconsciously rude you also
will not be able to consider that the
jerk that caught you off in traffic was
actually a frightened father on his way
to the hospital because his son just had
a life-threatening accident as a matter
of fact you actually have the power to
think that these people's realities can
be 10 times worse than yours and that's
why they are behaving in that way you
have the choice to think that their
actions have nothing to do with you but
they have everything to do with their
particular life conditions because if
you don't decide to think in any other
way other than what you're arrogant
default settings dictate you will not
consider possibilities that are not
annoying and miserable for you and
that's why it's important to do the work
of getting free of your natural and
hardwired default setting of being
self-centered and blindly certain about
your own opinions and beliefs because
the most terrible part is that you're
self-centered thinking is so automatic
that you don't even realize you have the
choice to think in any other way that
said there's no correct way to think or
to interpret things everyone gets the
chance to decide how they want to see
the world and their personal existence
and this is the only absolute truth that
you get the option to decide how you
will interpret reality you get to decide
if you will make everything about
yourself or you will consider
possibilities that involves others
life's experience outside from your own
that is what learning how to think means
to pay attention and to choose how to
construct meaning from different
experiences it isn't really about how to
think but rather about the conscious
choice of what you will think about
that's why worshiping a superior deity
or a set of moral values is a better
choice over worshiping something
directly related to you because up to a
certain degree a superior Deenie
extracts some of your opinions from your
perception of how things are on the
other hand
worship money fame beauty and power and
they will eat you alive
because they all are directly related to
you and when something doesn't go your
way you will immediately assign a
negative meaning to them and thus create
conditions of misery for yourself the
only thing that's true is that you get
to decide what meaning you assign to
everything you are aware of that's real
freedom freedom from your own tendency
to think and filter everything as if you
are the center of this infinite universe
that's why you must always remember this
is water this is water David Foster
Wallace gave his moral nurturing speech
this is water as the commencement speech
of Kenyan college class 2005 I am in no
way sharing that this video is a total
explanation of it but I really hope this
condensed and simple explanation helps
you understand the main concept in less
time I will link the full speech in the
description box below
I urge you to listen to it because it
contains one of the most powerful truths
of the human experience
our complete blindness to making
everything about ourselves if you find
this video valuable please consider
subscribing to the YouTube channel and
if you are interested in using
affirmations to improve yourself you can
get my free recorded affirmations with
the link in the description box below
you
