Alan Watts’ full speech below:

My goodness, don’t you remember when you went first to school? You went to kindergarten. And kindergarten, the idea was to push along so that you could get into first grade. And then push along so that you could get into second grade, third grade, and so on, going up and up and then you went to high school and this was a great transition in life. And now the pressure is being put on, you must get ahead. You must go up the grades and finally be good enough to get to College. And then when you get to College, you’re still going step by step, step by step, up to the great moment in which you’re ready to go out into The World.

And then when you get out into this famous World, comes the struggle for success in profession or business. And again, there seems to be a ladder before you, something for which you’re reaching for all the time.

And then, suddenly, when you’re about 40 or 45 years old, in the middle of life, you wake up one day and say “Huh? I’ve arrived. And, by Joe, I feel pretty much the same as I’ve always felt — in fact I’m not so sure that I don’t feel a little bit cheated.”

Because, you see, you were fooled. You were always living for somewhere where you aren’t. And while, as I said, it is of tremendous use for us to be able to look ahead in this way and to plan. There is no use in planning for a future, which when you get to it and it becomes the present, you won’t be there. You’ll be living in some other future which hasn’t yet arrived. And so in this way, one is never able actually to inherit and enjoy the fruits of one’s actions.

You can’t live it all unless you can live fully, now.

A phenomenal ad (in my book) about products fulfilling core desires for their users. Volvo goes right to the top of Maslow’s hierarchy - it’s not a car to get you from A to B, it’s not about the luxury or the safety or the fuel economy - it’s the product that gets you to live fully.