So last week, as part of my boycotting of the London freesheets, I read The Alchemist. It’s not a long book, and I got through it in the space of four days’ tube journeys.

A slightly surprising ending, but one that teaches us to not always assume that the grass is greener wherever you’re not. The one thing that jumped out, though, was this quote from page 138, about two thirds of the way through the book:

‘Everyone on Earth has a treasure that awaits him … We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, towards its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them — the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.

‘So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.’

It’s as good a justification as has ever been made for not putting off, but grabbing life in both hands and doing today what you’ve always wanted, whatever the consequences, rather than tomorrow, later, or never.