David Foster Wallace delivered the commencement address at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005. The contents of that speech make for what would be a great New Year's resolution.

Choose to be aware of what is happening around you.

Wallace talked about choosing awareness over self-interest.

Choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.

Wallace also broke it down into much simpler terms. He talked about choosing awareness and patience in everyday situations such as when driving or when checking out at the grocery store. He admits it isn't easy.

It is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head.

Wallace talked about the importance of education and what it really means to learn how to think.

Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.

It's easy to apply these ideas today with the constant distractions of social media, texting and countless other ways to spend hours consumed by media, but it's about much more than that.

It's about being conscious of the routine decisions that face us on a daily basis. It's about choosing to take advantage of opportunities to share with and care for others rather than becoming so consumed with self and routine that these chances pass by without even noticing.

In 2016, make the choice to be aware.

Speech contains mild NSFW language.

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