I went to the dentist this morning. This is only relevant because instead of riding home after the appointment I found myself riding to the train station, lock up my bike and buy a ticket. I wasn’t going to go into London today, but now I am.
We are creatures of habit. We do the same things in the same way on a daily basis, at home, at work. It is easy. Sometimes that is good, crucial even. But sometimes it isn’t. Problem is, with everything happening we never have the time to question what we do and why we do it.
Take the products we use on a daily basis. Would there be a better way of making this, or of using that? In school and in past jobs I don’t remember being given opportunities to question things. You often hear “this is how we have always done it. It works, so why change it”. There are so many things to do, we are so busy that we don’t take the time to ask the difficult questions.
You often hear this as an excuse for not making things more sustainable. Just because it works, doesn’t mean it can’t work better another way, or that it will continue.
I spent the 40 minute train ride questioning everything about the train, the layout and colour of the seats, the shape and size, the tracks, the functionality of the stations, the kinds of people sitting in the train. It is an exhausting excercise to question, but in my head I’ve created my perfect sustainability train. Now if only I could present it to National rail. Who knows, some of it could happen!
