Mid-Life Chris-is...
So a funny thing happened the other week, just before we left for Mexico. I was made redundant! I’m currently “unemployed”..!
I’m only warning you, dear reader, because it means you are going to be hearing a LOT more from me while I work out a plan.
I’m a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. Sometimes it may not be simple to work out what exactly that reason is, but I believe it will become clear and that the opportunities will be there to make your life the best it can be.
In my case, I believe, actually, I know that this has happened to give me the time I need to find out what the next stage of my life involves, and maybe it’s time for a change. The question is, how to affect that change... Do I become the drag artist I secretly think I am? Or do I start writing more? Blogging and Podcasting to the world about those things I care about? Maybe. But will those pay the bills? Now, that’s the tricky bit…
Reader, I am not fussy. Just over five years ago I was working part time as a “Kitchen Associate” in a Wetherspoons. Work is work. (Actually, apart from the 5am deliveries, I loved that job). In between Potter films 1 & 2 I used to work at a cinema in Norwich selling and then sweeping from the floor tonnes of popcorn every week. This time is different though. This time I’m nearly 35 and quite honestly it’s starting to get to the point where I need to “shit or get off the pot”. It’s time to decide, do I audition for Blue Man Group now?!
I guess the answer to that is “why not?!” If I’m going to give Chris a chance to be himself then maybe being given your weeks’ notice 3 hours before you had a week’s annual leave booked is the time to do it. Maybe this is my mid-life crisis about to happen, and you’ll see my riding around South Wales on some ridiculous motorbike I neither like nor can afford. (You won’t.)
I’ve always told people to live their best life (in one way, shape, or form) but maybe, like most people who give advice, I haven’t always taken my own medicine. I think that time, however, has come, and it’s time to do what makes me happy.
So, today’s lesson, beautiful people, is to live each day as it is presented to you. Don’t get hung up on the details, just enjoy living each day. It’s a big, beautiful world out there, and we don’t need to be unhappy in order to make ends meet. Of course I would love to be earning a small fortune, drive a fancy car and go on swanky holidays whenever I felt like it. Who wouldn’t?! But I don’t need that to be happy. Happy, for me, is being able to get to the end of every day and love what I’ve got. Which I do. Very much.
Of course, in any redundancy or unemployment, there’s always going to be a touch of negativity? Am I cross about being made redundant? Yes. Did I want to be made redundant? No. BUT that doesn’t mean that I’m not ok with it. I am ok with it. I’m looking at it as one of those times when it’s the universe telling me that it’s time to do something else. Obviously that’s not the reason I was made redundant, but it’s about taking the opportunity and turning it into a good thing.
One thing that really surprised me when I was sat down and told that I was being “let go” was that I immediately felt about 5 stone lighter. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the work I was doing, and the people I worked with, but I think subconsciously I may have been starting to get a bit ground down by it.
In my line of work, I’m rarely in a permanent job. If you work on a tv show or a film, your contract is generally the length of the production and then you’re out again (normally 6-9months) so having been in my previous job for 16 months I was starting to get a little bit scratchy. I’ve been incredibly blessed in my income-generating career that I’ve always seemed to land on my feet somewhere down the line, but I don’t take that for granted. Right now, I know that I don’t have a regular income stream, and that there’s a certain amount of money I need to make each week or month in order to keep the roof over our heads and the wolf from the door. I’m thinking as hard as I can about ways to keep that happening, but this time, I’m trying to think outside the box and see if there’s any possibility that I can award myself a little more freedom.
Does this mean we might be a bit poorer? Possibly. Does that matter? Not really. As long as we can afford the house, then Nessie and I have each other and our dogs, and that’s really all we need.
I think my point is this. Sometimes those shitty situations that come out of the blue aren’t there to pull you back, they are there to set you free. Take life as a new adventure each day, and don’t take everything quite so seriously (this does not apply to paying your taxes!). There’s a happy place out there for everyone, and it may not always be the way you thought it should be.
Have fun, keep smiling, and be prepared to have to put up with me on a much more regular basis…!
Peace and Love
CwR xxx