The youngest signatory on the United States Constitution was aged 26. Karl Marx co-authored The Communist Manifesto at age 29. But for most of us in the modern world, our creative and intellectual exercises sort of all but end after we finish college and start working in the real world.

How come we’re so busy generating project reports and spreadsheets that we never stop to pen down our thoughts about fundamental truths or universal human rights or plights of the working class. I’m sure we continue to indulge in discussing/debating such topics after a few drinks with our closest friends, but our thoughts are as fleeting as our buzz.

We never aspire to write anything more than a Xeet or an Instagram byline. We never actually sit down and spend a day (or a week, or a decade) to put into words what our beliefs are, in great detail and depth. I know that I’ve never done this after I’m no longer in situations where marks or passing grades are involved.

If you were to pull me to write down a constitution for a new country, I would choke so hard! If you were to ask me to write a manifesto for foundational economic policies, or a guide on a life well lived, I would raise my hands and exclaim I’m not good enough for either!

However, my intuition suggests it’s not just a case of lacking intellect, but a case of lacking the discipline to exercise the mind enough. And reason is that we never do exercise our brains to push it beyond it’s comfortable realm of passing thoughts into a coherent, deeply consistent string of literature. More of us should try to carve out time to pursue this – either to train the muscle, or indulge in a bit of self-important role play, or if you’re independent enough, as a serious effort to pen your thoughts to share with the world – it would be a good exercise in self-discovery, and surprisingly, maybe even a gift for the world.

(Note: I’d want to spend some effort on publicly tackling some of these challenges in the future. At the moment, I’m trying to establish a writing habit, so output of words regularly is more important to me than quality of the writings.)