Does the future need to be better than the present?

I spent a week talking to people about hope and got some great Q&As to share with you. Like this one: What if my life is already pretty great, why should I strive for a better future?

Last week I went on a little rendezvous to my hometown Helsinki. I was invited to speak at a few events and got to meet people interested in hope and impact. These led to some great exchanges with brave human beings who shared their vulnerable selves, stories and questions. 

Because some of these questions are worth discussing with a bigger audience, I’ll use this newsletter to answer them in the following weeks. I invite you to share your perspective in the comments section below the post. I believe we can all learn from each other. 

Without further adieu, let’s dive into this week’s question: Does the future have to be better than the present?

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that my theory on hope is derived from psychology research. This research states that in order for a person to feel hopeful, they need to believe that the future will be better than the present. 

When I started working with the topic of hope, I considered it a given that everybody today feels a bit hopeless about what’s going on in the world and would like the future to be better than the present. I thought, perhaps naively, that we all share a similar concern for the world and aren’t sure if tomorrow will be brighter than today. 

However, I was wrong. 

A few people have asked me if the belief in a better future is necessary for a hopeful life. Last week, a person told me that their present moment was already good enough and didn’t need to improve. So they were wondering, can’t they just be satisfied with what they have? Isn’t that a good recipe for overall happiness?

This is a great question. To answer this we need to consider multiple angles. 

First, we need to understand what exactly we want to feel more hopeful about

When we start to work on our hopefulness, we need to determine what exactly we want to feel more hopeful about. Is it the state of the climate, the state of our society, or my personal relationship with my health or my marriage? To apply the hope theory in our lives, we must be quite specific about our wishes for improvement. 

We also need to decide what “better” means in that given context. For example, if we want to feel more hopeful about our marriage, maybe better means we have better conversations with our partners or a more satisfying sex life. 

If we are looking for hope in a more worldly context, the definition of better might be more nuanced. With a topic such as climate change, better usually means better for the planet. However, many of us live lives that are ecologically unsustainable but make us happy on a personal level. By this, I mean that we have a nice place to live, own nice things, have money to spend and can travel and enjoy the world. However, lowering our CO2 emissions might require us to give up on the things that we have previously considered a good life. 

So the question is, does our life become better or worse if we want to save the planet? Who and what are we referring to when we use the word better?

Let’s say we want to find a compromise. A better future for the planet and also for ourselves. If we believe our well-being is derived from material things such as owning more and more things or traveling around the world, our future might look uninspiring. But if we consider cutting our CO2 emissions as a possibility to live a more minimalist lifestyle and derive pleasure from interpersonal relationships, crafts and DIY projects and long walks in nature, our life may indeed become better even if we have to make some sacrifices. 

(Tip for Finnish speakers: I’ve had the pleasure of working with a Finnish transition movement called Jalotus, a non-profit dedicated to helping people navigate these abundant yet low-carbon lifestyles. If climate change is a primary concern of yours, I recommend checking out their website.)

But doesn’t the word better also keep us stuck in a loop of always wanting more?

One might argue that if we try to pursue a life that is better than our current reality, we’re recycling the capitalist logic of always wanting more and never being truly satisfied. 

Shouldn’t we instead try to become like Siddhartha Gautama (aka the Buddha) and focus on what is great in this very moment? You know, om, namaste and all. 

Gratitude is one of the core components of a hopeful mindset. In order to believe in a better future we need to first acknowledge and be grateful for what we already have. Because if we are resentful and angry at ourselves and the world around us, we are likely unable to see hopeful opportunities or have the necessary stamina to take action. In that case, we likely need to see a therapist or a health professional to deal with whatever has brought us to that depressed state. 

But if we’re able to feel grateful for our lives and wake up each day with excitement and joy, why do we need to focus our energy on a better future? Why wouldn’t we just bask in the sunshine of how splendid everything is?

Many people choose to do exactly that. They bask in the sunshine and enjoy their great fortune. They feel no desire to start wondering if things could be better once they’ve achieved their personal goals. 

However, focusing on our individual success and joy may also be a form of denial. It keeps us from seeing the suffering of others and connecting with the needs of our communities. Focusing on our individual success and joy may make us happy on a very individualistic level, but it might also make us a bit numb and disconnected. 

A more objective perspective on the world shows that there are many causes in this world that need help from people who are content and well-off in their personal lives. The future does not look great for everyone on the planet. There is work to be done and actions to be taken. 

If we don’t believe we can help others or take actions that can serve bigger causes, we might be stuck in a cynical view of the world. We might think that we are happy and hopeful, but in fact, we’ve created a layer of positivity and gratitude around us to protect ourselves from the suffering of others. 

I fully understand and agree that sometimes we might have to protect ourselves in order to survive our own crises or strengthen our mental well-being. However, I’m not sure if extreme individualism is a hopeful strategy for life. Focusing solely on ourselves is unlikely to improve our collective futures.

Helping others doesn’t have to make you miserable

Ecophilosopher Joanna Macy and resilience specialist Chris Johnstone, the authors of Active Hope suggest that personal well-being, community well-being and planetary wellbeing are interlinked through the ‘connected self’. Instead of an individualistic understanding of self, we can construct a larger narrative about who and what we are. 

In this narrative, selfishness and altruism aren’t opposing choices, but altruistic acts are, in fact, satisfying on a personal level as well. This idea goes back to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant who spoke about moral acts and beautiful acts.

According to him, a moral act is something we do because we have to or we’re morally obliged to. It’s a pure act of duty. Such as paying the taxes. Beautiful acts, on the other hand, are something we do because we choose to do them; they give us some type of satisfaction, and they come easy to us. They might be moral or immoral but are motivated by our desire. A good example of a beautiful act might be creative work or expressing our true interests in one way or another. 

The authors suggest that the most important sources of human enjoyment are also altruistic. Such as love, friendship, mutual aid, loyalty and spirituality. The causes of suffering on the other hand are often individualistic. Macy and Johnstone write:

“When people lose their sense of belonging to larger circles, they lose not only the motivation to act for their communities and environment but also valuable sources of support and resilience. Alongside the erosion of extended family and community networks, the rate of depression in industrialised countries has been steadily rising for more than fifty years.”

Compassion and responsibility are fundamental aspects of human nature that should never be dismissed as unnecessary. And they don’t necessarily have to be in conflict with our happiness and personal fulfilment. 

So, if you’re lucky enough to feel great about everything in your life and don’t find anything you need to improve personally, that’s amazing. Put on your party gown, play some tunes, throw a celebration.

But once you’ve mended your sore muscles from all the dancing and survived your hangover, take a moment to ask yourself: Could there be someone or something in this world that could use your help? Could your talents and gifts be of service to someone in need? Could you find personal fulfillment and contribute to a bigger cause?

And then take action to try it out in real life. See how you feel.  

Thanks for your attention and time. See you next week for another perplexing question about hope. 

Until then, become the hope you wish to feel in this world.

With kindness,
Aurora