There is a certain weight to Pablo Picasso's words that can feel quite heavy at first glance. When he says we should only put off until tomorrow what we are willing to die having left undone, he isn't trying to scare us into a state of panic. Instead, he is inviting us to look closely at our priorities. It is a profound call to mindfulness, asking us to audit our lives and see if our daily actions actually align with the things that truly matter to our souls. It is about recognizing that time is our most precious, non-renewable resource.
In the rush of our modern lives, it is so easy to fall into the trap of 'someday.' We tell ourselves we will start that creative project someday, or we will mend that broken relationship someday, or we will finally take that trip when things settle down. We treat our dreams as if they are sitting on a shelf in a waiting room, indefinitely postponed. But the truth is, the 'settled' life we are waiting for rarely arrives. Life happens in the messy, busy, and often unpredictable middle, and if we keep pushing our passions into a future that isn't guaranteed, we might find ourselves looking back with a sense of quiet regret.
I remember a time when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed by my many little tasks. I had a dream of writing a collection of short stories, but I kept pushing the writing to 'next month' or 'next year' because I felt I needed to finish every single chore on my to-do list first. I was treating my creativity as something optional, something that could wait until I was 'ready.' It wasn't until I sat down and realized that my 'ready' might never come that I decided to write just one page a day. I realized that if I didn't make space for my heart's work now, I was essentially deciding that my passion wasn't worth the effort of living.
As your friend BibiDuck, I want to remind you that you don't have to change your entire life overnight. You don't need to quit your job or move to a different country to honor this quote. You just need to identify that one thing—the one thing that makes your heart flutter or your eyes light up—and stop treating it as a secondary priority. Take a small, brave step toward that unfinished piece of your soul today. Ask yourself: if tomorrow were a mystery, what would I want to have accomplished by sunset tonight?