The time is always right to write!

The title of this post is inspired by Dr Martin Luther King Jr's quote which says that the "time is always ripe to do right". And that right thing, in my mind, and in the context of this post, is to write. Oh yes, we all need to write. 

If work is, as Khalil Gibran said, "love made visible", then writing is definitely thinking made visible. Talking may be the most effective way to discover our thoughts but what writing can do, talking cannot do. 

Writing is so much more effective in holding ourselves accountable for the thoughts we think. It helps us commit into actions on those ideas we hold dear to, and those ideals we aspire to realise, like no amount of talking can do. As the Vienna-based Shaolin monk, Shi Hengyi once quipped, "The talking is very big in this world". Watch this clip from minute 2:36 till 2:44.

We must move from the passive act of thinking and talking to the active act writing and doing. Talking is just a way of thinking out loud. But writing is a way of getting down to action. 

Writing forces you into a corner with your back up against the ropes. It puts you on a spot where you can either do or die. This is especially so when you make your writing public namely via publishing it as a book.

Writing helps you discover yourself. It helps you learn about yourself, your thoughts, your feelings, your inner strengths, your shortcomings, your inner fears and your inner desires. Your aspirations, your honest feelings, your lies and your nonsense. Your inner world. Your darkest side as well as your brightest side. 

And when you get to learn so much more about yourself through your writing process, how can you not succeed?


History is full of success stories which actually began the protagonists put their pen to paper.

Sylvester Stallone was a struggling actor during his pre-Rocky years. He was such a nobody actor that he failed an audition to be an extra in The Godfather. They said he wasn't Italian enough! Most people think Stallone made it big because he played the main character in the movie Rocky but they don't know how Rocky came about. Rocky only came about after Sylvester Stallone made a decision to become a screen-writer. Watch this clip (from minute 3:25 - 3:30) to find out how and why he decided to be a writer.

Had Stallone not decided to write, Rocky would not have happened. That is the power of writing down your ideas. Hear it (the origin story of Rocky) straight from the horse's mouth here, so to speak.

And then there is Patrick Grove  (an internet and media entrepreneur) whose net worth in 2016 was estimated to be around AUD$587 million. In 2018, he shared with Mindvalley's Vishen Lakhiani about how he used journalling as a tool to become a millionaire. 

That's the power of laying out your options and exploring them on paper first before your physically explore them.

Ruben "Hurricane" Carter was an upcoming boxer when he was wrongfully convicted of murder. In the prison he wrote his book The Sixteenth Round to tell the world that he was innocent. A young man by the name of Lesra Martin picked up his book. Read it. Got inspired and determined to become a lawyer when he grew up. He eventually helped Carter in his eventual released 18 years into his imprisonment. 

Had Carter not written his book, Lesra Martin would not have picked up his book. Carter would have just died of old age in prison and the world would have not known that he was actually wrongfully convicted!

That is the power of writing your story into a book and get it out to the world.

I am not asking you to do what you don't want to do here. But what you can and want to do, you must do. If you have always wanted to write (a book), now is the best time to do it. The time is always right to write!