What The Hell Is Water?

This Is Water was David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech to graduating students at Kenyon College in 2005.

Rather than the usual over-enthusiastic “go get ’em!” speeches, David chose to use the address to discuss something far more profound and important — awareness.

Nearly a decade after he gave it, and 5 years after David himself passed away, it still holds the same relevance to our every day lives.

Life is what you make it — and what you make of it.

Perception is essential to our happiness, our sense of worth and well-being — and ultimately plays a key role in our progression and advancement, both in our personal lives and our careers.

No matter if your routine consists of an hour long commute in an over-crowded underground train or a 20 minute tailback along the ocean road, how you choose to perceive your reality and how you consider others around you, ultimately plays a key role in your enjoyment of the now and your conscious and sub-conscious decisions when planning for tomorrow.

It really is important to stop and smell the flowers. If you haven’t seen it, allow yourself the 9 minutes, 23 seconds to watch the abbreviated version above.

Enjoy Life.

Footnote:
For those of you that know me personally, you’ll know that SUV story is eerily true in my case!

This post was originally published on my personal blog here. I’m an entrepreneur (successfully built and sold multiple businesses of scale — failed at many more). You can find out more about me by reading my biog or connecting with me on LinkedIn.

Originally published at www.rickpalmerconsulting.com on May 23, 2013.