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chrisplucas · 7 years ago

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So, what is this LITS all about?

Well I guess this is my first official post then. I think it’s an positive and important one to start with. Something that I find helps me and I want to share it with you. So here goes…

Have you heard of the word LITS? If you know me well then you probably have asked me what LITS is all about when I use it to make toast with my friends, when I comment on a post on Facebook, when I hashtag it over my Instagram. But most importantly to help guide me through life when making day to day or important decisions. It’s ok if you don’t know me though, I appreciate and thank you for reading this so I’ll explain the best I can for you. LITS is something I have started to live and breathe by in the last few years which has helped me through some pretty difficult situations in life.

So what does LITS stand for? LITS stands for “Life Is Too Short”. Pretty simple right? Pretty obvious what it means? Yeah I guess so. Most people use the word YOLO which is “You Only Live Once” if you’re not familiar with it. So why not use that? I love that people use the word YOLO and I’ve seen how it helps them make spontaneous decisions in life like I do but for me I feel like I needed a little bit more. Something that was unique to me, something simple to push me to make some important decisions in my life, something I felt was because of me and LITS has helped me to achieve that. I’m sure people have been using the saying “Life Is Too Short” way before me and people will probably say that you didn’t create it, but I like to think LITS was created because of me and my friends as a way to be positive and to be spontaneous in making decisions so yeah, I feel like me and my friends created LITS. I’d love to hear if anyone has been using the word LITS as well and if so share what LITS means to you too.

Again, this all sounds pretty simple right. So why the post if it’s pretty simple? Well I wanted to explain why LITS is important to me and how it has helped me through a lot in the last few years and I hope by sharing this that it can in some way be a help to you too. I’m not a writer nor have I ever blogged before so it feels pretty strange to open up and share my feelings to so many but I want to be positive and share experiences with you all. I don’t expect millions of people to read this post but I’m hoping that if it inspires, motivates, helps or makes just one person smile then I believe writing this post will be worth my time if it helps others.

When people ask me what LITS is about, I always remember back to that one moment when LITS was first a part of my life and how it came about and made me feel. So I tell them the same story which I’m going to tell you now. Me and my friends sat in a pub garden one summer after a long hard day at work. We was discussing stuff we could do as a group of friends and there was always a little doubt, a little something got in the way. This shouldn’t be the way so me and my friends raised our drinks and decided to toast enough is enough, we should make the plans become reality as we all kept saying YOLO and the words “Life Is Too Short” which then we put it together to say LITS and bam, LITS was created. This is why I feel we created it lol.

So what was the plans you might ask? Well I’ll share one with you and I’m sure my friends won’t mind me telling you this (I did ask beforehand haha). If my friends are reading this and feel they have more to this story then please feel free to add a comment to this post or how LITS makes you feel.

Well one of the first plans was to go to London for the weekend and enjoy lots of food and drinks plus go sightseeing together. Of course we made this happen and can safely say we used the word LITS a few times that weekend. We tried a Cronut which is a Crossiant-Doughnut and tasted frigging amazing. We made our own bar and called it Kelsey’s as you do making fun cocktails before heading out for drinks in Shoreditch. It was just a fun filled weekend with people I care about a lot but there is one thing that comes to mind the most and reminds me of that weekend that brings LITS to life.

The one thing that makes me think about LITS the most and how it made an impact on my life believe it or not was this. We went for brunch at Cafe Rouge down by the Tower Bridge at Quayside in London. We sat down next to the Thames river front on the beautiful sunny day and started to browse the menu. We ordered glasses of orange juice and a bottle of Prosecco, as I said, we was brunching and it was near noon. But whilst reading the menu we all saw that they served Snails and we was all like shall we try it and bam, we toasted to the word LITS with our Prosecco and ordered the Snails to try. I can honestly say they wasn’t that bad, they was covered in a creamy garlic sauce and served with a slice of your finest bread (how else do you serve a snail?). They reminded me of a garlic mushroom with the look and texture of them. But I didn’t enjoy them enough to want them again and you want to know why? It was the thought going through my mind at the time that put me off them. You know on a grey, rainy wet day walking down the street, you see all the snails and slugs crossing the path as it’s easier for them to get around while it’s wet. You guessed it, that’s the thought running through my mind whilst eating them, the crunch of their shell if you accidently stepped on one feeling guilty or their slimy body leaving silver trails behind them. Yuk!!! With this in mind and with one of the snails I had just ordered in my mouth, I was starting to feel a little sick with the thought that I was chewing on of these critters so I quickly swallowed mine. But I did it, I felt like I had achieved something like they do on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! I’ve just completed my bushtucker trial and guess what, I’ve earned a gold star so a meal for camp.

Was it worth it? I guess so. The feeling I got afterwards that I’ve just done it and achieving that with your friends felt amazing! What a memory! This was all because of making a decision and saying LITS together which left me with such a positive and rewarding feeling which has stuck with me ever since. That sense of adrenaline that rushes through you and the buzz of wanting to achieve something you never thought you would do. So every time I say the word LITS and need a boost of why I need that push or motivation, I remind myself of the snail story and how I felt afterwards and that smile rushes across my face. All from eating a snail. Crazy!

That’s my positive story around LITS but this post I wanted to share something with you all where people can relate, where LITS played an important part of my life for a long period of time. I don’t want people to think LITS is just about making those fun and spontaneous decisions in life as that doesn’t relate too much to mental health nor the battle we have with difficult decisions in life. So the next part is all about a struggle I have dealt with recently which I want to share with you.

This was only just over a year ago, I worked in the same business in retail for nearly seven years and if I’m honest thoroughly enjoyed working there. I won’t name the company but many people will guess where it was if you know me. I joined as a Christmas temp not expecting to stay there but seven years later I went from a temp to a manager working in many different areas of the business. The thing is though, I put a lot of hard work and time into that career trying to progress but in the end I didn’t feel like I was myself anymore. I don’t know if I was progressing for me or if I was progressing for the company but either way it wasn’t the right balance. The job had drained me of my passion for the company, I lost sight of who I was and what I wanted to achieve in my working life. So after a few situations and an incident at work which led to an injury which wasn’t my fault (sounds where there’s a blame there’s a claim advert here) then received a disciplinary for my absence off work which I soon learned that the company can easily turn against you and you become just a number within the business. One thing to remember here is that health comes first everyone. I challenged their decision and they still couldn’t see their fault which was disappointing, I received a warning for absence which resulted in no pay rise. This made me feel worthless.

This knocked me back a little and my confidence took a hit but I didn’t want to give up. So what now? After a few changes within the business was announced made me think long and hard so I decided to take a risk and leave the company to try something new. It’s all about LITS right? The only difference is this time is I don’t say LITS to anyone else, not a group of friends or an individual, I say it to myself. Yeah I can ask for opinions but it’s my decision at the end of it. That’s where the challenge comes, I have no one else to motivate me whilst saying LITS, it’s all down to me to make it happen and that’s why I have to have the think of something positve to give me that push. That’s why I feel LITS fits the bill more than YOLO as I explained earlier on. Anyway, back to the story.

A lot of people say we spend so much time at work, probably more time than we do with family and friends so we have got to be happy in what we do. It’s about the perfect work life balance. With this in mind and me not being happy decided to apply for jobs and after a successful interview was offered a job for the same company, just the different side of the business in the supermarket sector. This is what I wanted, I was offered a new job with the skill set I developed to match but my heart didn’t want to leave the business I worked in for nearly seven years, I was comfortable. I had a long hard think and I didn’t know what to do. That’s when I had to decide using LITS. Life is too short and the way I was feeling from this job meant I had to take that risk and leave as the cons outwayed the pros here. So LITS it is and I took the job. So many doubts ran through my head but I was going for it, what’s the worse than can happen?

So believe it or not, after I took this job I and a few weeks in I realised I this job wasn’t for me either. I tried my hardest to settle in but it really wasn’t for me. I couldn’t just go back to my old job even though it was the same company, I felt like I made the biggest mistake ever. What do I do now? I can’t just have no job yet this new job is even worse than the last. I had no choice but to follow my decision I made with the last job and actually leave the company properly so I quit! You heard it right, I quit! What a bold decision but I wasn’t happy and Life Is Too Short to be staying somewhere I wasn’t happy.

This process happened for over a year where I had 6 completely different jobs since working for that business and that’s all down to LITS! I wouldn’t change it for nothing as it gave me the opportunity to try to adapt my skills into completely different roles and by saying different I am not kidding. I went from working in retail to a supermarket to storage to retail to a school to finance to the job I’m in now which I absolutely love.

The year was so hard for me though because I didn’t have a steady income and I started to believe that I was the failure and weak giving up on so many jobs. But I can start to think positive again and I have realised that why would I have been offered every job I got interviewed for if I was a failure? I started to realise that I must have something for all these people to want to hire me over other people. I didn’t feel confident in any of my interviews but again these people wanted to hire me. I didnt see this at all until I finally got the job I’m in now and realised it was never the job I didn’t enjoy. I realised it was actually the leadership and direction of the business I didn’t enjoy and didn’t believe in. After going through a lot with my career and losing trust with people I realised I built a guard up which without this experience through my career I would never gained this valuable experience and be where I am today. It was hard work I must say!

With this adventure the last year I have also gained so many new friends who I might of never met if it wasn’t for taking a risk and going from pillar to post in jobs. It’s been a long year and so many knockbacks but I can finally say I’m settling back into a career I love and feeling a little more confident again. I can’t promise you things as it’s still down to you but I know that LITS helped me through a lot and that’s down to be positive and never giving up no matter how hard it gets. You might think LITS isn’t for you and that’s alright. Find your own destiny and make something you truly believe will help get you through but from something me and my friends decided to create makes a big impact on your life, even make you do and achieve things you wouldn’t dream of doing. I could probably go on and on here but the main thing is to be yourself and feel confident of the person you are and don’t let anyone else make you feel different.

I would like to thank everyone for reading this blog, I know it’s a lot to read and I probably blabbered on most of the time. But it means a lot you have took time out and if you have anything to share from this blog please feel free to comment, post, share, message me. Until next time though. Chris 😊

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chrisplucas · 7 years ago

Text

So, what is this LITS all about?

Well I guess this is my first official post then. I think it’s an positive and important one to start with. Something that I find helps me and I want to share it with you. So here goes...

2 notes · View notes