"What the Hell Is Water?" — The Truth You’re Close to See
What If You’re Missing the Most Important Truth About Life?
There’s a famous story by David Foster Wallace:
Two young fish are swimming along when they meet an older fish going the other way. He nods and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two younger fish swim on a bit, and then one turns to the other and says, “What the hell is water?”
This story isn’t about fish. It’s about you. It’s about me.
It’s about how most of us live our lives completely immersed in something — but never stop to notice it.
That “something”? It’s time. It’s identity. It’s belief. It’s the story we’ve been telling ourselves for so long, we no longer question it.
We wake up. We check our phone. We carry yesterday’s worries. We think we’re choosing — but most of the time, we’re just reacting.
Not because we’re unaware… but because we’ve been swimming in the same current for years.
This Is the Water
Your routines. Your reactions. The beliefs you never chose but still carry. The identity you didn’t build — but inherited.
Ask yourself: What belief am I swimming in right now — that I’ve never actually examined?
The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom
There’s a big difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is what we learn from others:
Books
Podcasts
YouTube videos
But wisdom? That only comes from direct experience.
You can know what peace is by reading about it. But unless you’ve felt it — when your life was chaotic and you stayed still — it’s just theory.
You can know what love looks like from a thousand stories. But unless you’ve opened your heart fully and risked getting hurt — you haven’t truly learned it.
Wisdom begins the moment we stop living on autopilot. It begins the moment we pause and ask: “What water am I in?”
Ready to Go Deeper? Start Here:
This guide will help you reflect and implement what we’ve talked about — so you can truly integrate it into your life.
How to Become the Fish Who Sees the Water
Here’s a 3-step Shift Practice you can start today:
Step 1: Observe the Water Set a 3-minute timer. Don’t scroll. Don’t distract yourself. Just sit with yourself.
What are you feeling? Thinking? What beliefs are guiding your choices today?
Awareness is the first wake-up call.
Step 2: Question Your Truth Journal this:
“Whose voice is in my head right now? Is it mine… or something I absorbed long ago?”
“What identity am I protecting today — and do I even want it anymore?”
Step 3: Choose One New Action Awareness without movement is still autopilot. So take one small action that disrupts the water around you.
Do something unfamiliar.
Ask a question you’ve avoided.
Say no where you usually say yes.
Disrupt the current. That’s how change begins.
You’re Already Swimming Differently
Here’s the wild part: Most people never ask “what is water?” They live entire lives reacting to their environment, shaped by unseen forces… and they call that free will.
But not you. You’re here, reading this, reflecting, questioning. That means you’re already becoming the fish who notices the water.
So I’ll ask you what the older fish asked: How’s the water?
And more importantly — What are you ready to see for the first time?
Let’s Swim Consciously — Together
Comment below and share: What’s one part of your life you’re questioning right now?
Let’s start a conversation about swimming consciously, not just surviving the current.
“Most real truths are the ones you tend to ignore. Because they’re too close. Too constant. Too ordinary.” — David Foster Wallace
