Take a moment to imagine our world a hundred years from today.
The planet is still recognisable. The oceans continue to move with the moon. The rivers make their way towards the sea. People still fall in love, raise children and work. We continue to create, celebrate, make mistakes and grieve.
We are still human. However… our perspective on life has shifted.
A hundred years from now, humanity has made peace with mortality, which is, after all, the only thing in life that is guaranteed.
As a result of this, we have remembered that our time here is limited, and therefore PRECIOUS.
Death is no longer hidden away or treated as something too uncomfortable to talk about.
We grow up understanding that it is a perfectly natural part of the cycle of life. And so, instead of making us fearful, this understanding has taught us what an extraordinary miracle it is to be alive.
A hundred years from now, we no longer take life for granted.
In this world, we have become deeply grateful for the small, everyday things… like a cup of coffee with someone we love. Walking our children to school. The rain against a window. Sitting around a table with old friends. A hand reaching for ours.
These ordinary moments that we once hurried through become the very moments we treasure most.
This is the essence of ALIVENESS - the practical philosophy of living fully, in the awareness that we are mortal.
This small but powerful change in human perspective begins to ripple outwards, through our family, friends, and societies.
We begin to live in deep gratitude and naturally take better care of ourselves. We become more conscious of how we spend our time, and we intuitively stop postponing the things that matter most.
A hundred years from now, we become more willing to follow our inner voice, our instinct, rather than waiting for the right moment, or living the life that others expect of us. We begin to live by design and not by default.
You see, making peace with death has not made us more cautious…. Quite the opposite… It has given us more COURAGE.
For centuries, much of human behaviour was shaped by fears we were barely aware of. We made death a taboo and something to avoid at all costs, and because of this, we protected ourselves. We accumulated and competed and clung to what we had.
We prioritised safety and self-interest above all else. This is the place from which mistrust thrives and greed and inequality grow. But as our fear of death diminished, so did some of that extractive mindset, and obsession to protect ourselves.
A hundred years from now we become more willing to look beyond our own immediate needs. We care more deeply about our families, our neighbours and our communities, but also about people we will never meet and generations who will inherit the world we leave behind.
In this future, self-interest did not disappear… we simply stopped building so much of our world around it.
Now imagine children growing up in this world. These are children who learn that time, relationships, and what they give to the world matters.
These kids do not spend decades waiting for permission to become themselves.
A hundred years from now, children ask different questions, like… What do I love? What am I good at? What would I like to contribute?
They wonder what makes them feel truly alive.
In this future, education is not simply preparation for capitalist employment. Schools teach children self-care and care for others. Kids value building relationships, and they relish contributing to the communities around them.
Which leads us on to our relationship with work.
Companies are launched and money is made. People want to do extraordinary things with their lives… however, success has grown beyond accumulation.
A hundred years from now, we care about what our work contributes to the world and whether we are genuinely enjoying our lives. In this future, we care about the people working alongside us; we feel responsible for what our ambition is actually in service of.
Instead of the thing life has to fit around, work becomes part of a life well lived. And all the while, machines have transformed what we once called ‘work’.
In this future, machines have not made humans less important. They have helped us focus on what it really means to be human. Technology frees up more of our time to be better parents and closer friends… leading to us becoming more engaged members of our communities
A hundred years from now, machines have become extraordinarily capable. But machines will never be ALIVE.
Perhaps, in the end, that is one of the greatest gifts technology gives us… the chance for us to become more human ?
Now let’s imagine our relationships. When we understand that our time with each other is limited, the people we love suddenly become harder to take for granted.
We find it easier to forgive and tell people we love them. We prioritise time with our loved ones and communities.
A hundred years from now we have come to realise that our loved ones (these other miracles of existence) are the real treasure of life. And gradually… very gradually… something interesting occurs: our sense of time begins to stretch beyond the boundaries of our own lives.
Men and women plant avenues of trees, knowing future generations will sit beneath them. We restore rivers whose full recovery we will never witness in our lifetime. Institutions and communities are designed to serve people we will never meet.
A hundred years from now towns and cities begin to reflect our upgraded values. More places in urban areas appear to gather and connect. Our towns are greener with more space for children to play.
Decisions are made around the quality of human life rather than the speed of economic growth. We begin thinking and planning in generations.
And this all fundamentally changes our relationship with the Earth. Because once we stop taking our own lives for granted… it becomes harder to take life itself for granted.
We realise a forest is no longer timber to use. A river is more than water… The living world stops looking like an endless supply of resources for humans to use.
That is because we remember that we are one with it.
A hundred years from now we begin to care for the Earth in the same way that we learn to care for ourselves. We take only what we need and repair what we damage… but importantly, we plan for those who come after us.
And over generations the Earth responds. Forests thicken and rivers become cleaner. We see wildlife return as cities become greener. Places that have been stripped of life recover.
Mankind finally understands that enough can actually be enough, and we begin to regenerate.
Please note: none of this means humanity has become perfect. People still argue and get things wrong. Jealousy and selfishness still exist. We still experience heartbreak, disappointment and loss. But we can all manage this better, because we are more grounded, connected and supported.
Fear still exists too. However, fear no longer silently drives so many of our decisions as individuals and societies.
Through practicing Aliveness, we have become better at recognising the subtle difference between the fear that keeps us alive and the fear that is pointing us to where we should be growing.
A hundred years from now, people are naturally braver. They have the conversation they have been avoiding. People step through their comfort zones and take the chance to create what has been waiting inside them.
They love more openly and move towards the lives they actually want to live.
Humanity spent a long time believing that an awareness of our mortality would diminish life.
But it actually did the opposite… it woke us up to life.
This world does not suddenly appear a hundred years from now. There is no single moment when everything changes.
It happens through small, brave choices, in service to something bigger than ourselves.
One loving, courageous choice influences others. Children grow up with different values, with more kindness and less fear. They build things differently and eventually, a different way of living becomes normal.
A hundred years from now, someone will sit beneath the branches of a tree. But they will never know who planted it. They will simply enjoy its shade.
Eventually, enough individual choices become a culture, and a culture becomes a different kind of world. A more alive world.
And somewhere, that future has to begin…
It might as well begin here…
It might as well begin with us…
It might as well begin with...
YOU.
Come and practice Aliveness with me
On Saturday the 14th of November, I’m thrilled to be teaching the Aliveness Practice at the Jung Center in Houston. Famous psychologist Carl Jung has been a huge influence on the development of Aliveness, so this is a real honour.
The two hour session is online, so you can join from anywhere in the world. If there’s a stone in your chest, or you feel yourself being pulled towards a change you’ve been too afraid to make, this is the work that helped me put my own stone down.
As well as simple 2-minute daily practice, the novel techniques in this workshop are designed to give you radical clarity, so you can make the decisions that will set you on the right path, towards your life’s deepest purpose.
Please join me live on Saturday November 14th
10am–12pm CT / 4pm-6pm UK / $40
“A colossal reframing of my existence. What I got from the workshop is that I can stop making and remaking the decision to commit my life to art, and just honour that decision. To give myself to it with love, glee and a sense of adventure.”(Jeremy)
“Looking at life through the awareness that our time is finite did not feel dark or confronting. Quite the opposite. Looking back from the perspective of an older version of myself brought a remarkable simplicity to questions that can otherwise become incredibly complicated. What matters? What am I postponing? What would I regret not becoming?” (Monica)
Make the most of the time you have.
Live happy,
Hoppy
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I am a former CEO & filmmaker, as well as a trained Soul Midwife and Druidic Bard. Aliveness emerged from my own near death experiences, sitting with the dying, and the wisdom of the Stoics, Buddhists and great thinkers on mortality. My dream is that Aliveness will become as impactful as Mindfulness: a daily practice helping people live more bravely, leave fewer regrets and create a more present and generous world.
