Our natural tendencies, attitudes and beliefs of the world are often the hardest to see and recognize. We interpret our experience through our own lens of self and rarely question our hardwired default settings.

Our ‘water’ is largely influenced by invisible subconscious patterning and social conditioning. Once we zoom out and closely examine the water we’re swimming in, we have a choice. We can choose to stay in that automatic default setting, or we can consciously decide to change our thinking. The so-called ‘real world’ encourages us to blindly swim in the murky water, exhausted in an effort to succeed in an environment whose default settings of money, power, fame determine our self-worth and value.

Question everything. And most importantly, know the water you’re swimming in.

Watch David Foster Wallace’s full commencement speech: