Commitment

Motivation to do something in your life is very important but I think more important than that is the commitment to work hard towards what you want to achieve. My taxi driver this morning was committed to having a conversation with me. Or it could be that he was gathering information from all his customers and compiling that into a book. He asked me where I worked, what I did, how long had I been travelling to London, if I enjoyed it, if I travelled daily etc etc. I think there's almost a sense of, ' I can ask all these things because we're both Pakistanis". That's a license to be nosy.. I'm surprised he didn't ask me what area I was from in Pakistan, as that is normally a question very commonly asked by a fellow Pakistanian who you're meeting for the first time...lol

How can you not move your lips at all for almost 25 minutes. Thursday morning in my train to London, a girl wearing a long, white, thick fur coat caught my eye because she looked like she was trying hard not to move her lips. May be she was hiding a secret and promised someone, "my lips are sealed"... Her coat almost looked like a cross between a blanket and a towel. She had some sort of lip gloss on and it looked like she had a constant pout. She was sitting in my line of sight and every time I looked up I could see she didn't move her mouth from the one position she had it in. It felt like she was determined to make sure her lip gloss doesn't come off. Whatever it was, she didn't move her lips once from the pout position. Or it could even be that she took a lot of selfies and she maintained a constant pout just in case she felt like taking a selfie. I reckon whatever she does in life, she must do that with full commitment and dedication because I wouldn't be able to do what she demonstrated.

On the same train, at Coventry Station a lady came and sat on a seat opposite me. She looked like she was going to work and she frequently took this journey. Even before she sat down she opened her laptop. She then pulled out a small plastic container from her hand bag with what looked like some porridge and frozen berries inside it. She started eating that with a wooden spoon like that was the best thing she ever had. She kept making chomping sounds like she's absolutely loving that and that is the best thing in the world. She either couldn't hear the eating noises she was making or she was committed to enjoy that the way she wanted at whatever cost. Even if that meant someone is getting annoyed with the noises. Unlike the other girl I mentioned above, she constantly kept moving her mouth, making chewing noises, sticking her tongue out and even licking her lips. I'm not sure about you but chomping noises just annoy me. She took absolutely ages to finish that porridge and it looked like she was purposefully eating slowly to annoy the hell out of people. I finally thanked God when she finished after extracting every little grain she could from that container, but she then still had some tiny particles in her mouth which she kept chewing on afterwards and still kept making the noises. But when she did stop it started feeling so calm and quiet in the train which felt like a blessing. Goes to show how easily we forget about the good things we have and we only realise when we don't have them anymore.

There was a man sitting on the right to this lady. He had been sitting there since I joined the train and he had this grumpy / tough guy / don't bother me look on his face. He had his bag on the seat and a man a Birmingham station came and sat on the bag.. Lol. He then apologised to him and asked him to move the bag to which he wasn't very happy about (it looked that way any way). He had no choice I guess but to move the bag because a). The seats are for humans not bags and b). He didn't have a ticket for the bag. He was wearing a white shirt, a red tie with dots on it and he had grey short hair and beard. Looked like he was a frequent traveller and he was engrossed in his phone screen watching something. When the train manager came to check the tickets, there was a lot of drama when he showed his ticket. He said he wanted a ticket from Milton Keynes to Euston as his ticket was only upto Milton Keynes. The train manager said he would have to buy a new ticket as that train wasn't stopping at Milton Keynes and he could only use that ticket if the train stopped there and it was a peak time service. He then asked how much would the ticket be from Coventry to Euston. I knew he was on the train from Birmingham so he was lying to save the fare. The train manager said that would around £88 one way. He started raising his voice a bit and said he didn't know that he couldn't use that ticket.

The man then said that he travelled from Coventry to Milton Keynes every day and he was going to London today. I thought that was not right because he was sitting on the train from Birmingham. I felt like telling the train manager that he didn't get on from Coventry but I kept quiet. He then had to get a new ticket and pay for that but some how the train manager found him a cheaper deal so he only had to pay £22. After that he went to sleep and started snoring loud as if he was celebrating his success of not having to pay £88. He was definitely committed to saving money even if that meant he didn't buy the ticket for the full journey.

Today's quote that I'd like to share with you is, "Commitment is what transforms a promise into a reality.” Abraham Lincoln.

I hope you enjoyed reading today's blog. Keep your comments coming. Happy Friday

Adeel