Monthly Archives: August 2014

Procrastination

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I started thinking about this adventure in December and we’re now in August, that’s some serious procrastination. But now that I have got this far, let me take things back a few months as there were a few things I wanted settled before I started.

A visa

As a Kiwi currently living in London, I’ve got to jump through a few (so many!!!) hoops to be entitled to live and work in this amazing, vibrant and challenging city. The working holiday visa that I entered the UK on ran out in March this year so to stay on I had to apply for further leave to remain. Options are pretty limited for Kiwis once your working holiday visa runs out but luckily for me my lovely Kiwi boyfriend has a British passport through his father. So I could apply as a defacto spouse to stay with him. It is a long, convoluted and expensive process but fortunately, we came out the other side without me being deported on the next flight out of there.

A diet

After feeling super lethargic coming out of a long British winter, I needed to shake up my diet and spend some time tending to my health. After looking into a few things and talking to a few people, I decided I wanted something sustainable and be a basis for good habits in the future. I then, on one crazy Sunday (this may or may not have been the 31st of December) I made a resolution to undertake the most extreme fad diet out there, the Whole30. I went through withdrawals; headaches, tiredness, lethargy. Then frustrations with the intensive food prep and planning that goes into it, then euphoria at finishing and seeing the diminished figure on the scales. I then celebrated waaaay too much and undid it all. You can read my lessons learned here. I am no poster child for the Whole 30 but I gave it a good shot.

A desk

I felt that I needed to make an area for myself, a space to write and think and get all deep about things. I didn’t want the distractions of TV or my boyfriend or the all too present pull of sleep. I usually sit on my bed to work and go from upright and alert to slouched, head on the pillow, laptop on stomach in the time it takes to open my browser. Not good if I am to be a serious blogger. Instead of going to all the effort of sorting out a desk and lighting and plugs and everything, I have subtly commandeered a little space for me on my boyfriend’s desk (read taken over). It’s not a good long term fix, but until I am properly booted off, I’ll take it.

A deadline

Yup, after the first few months flew by I knew this wasn’t going to happen unless I really forced myself too. I bit of time here and there on a lazy Sunday does not a blog make. Then listening to this podcast by Bevan James Eyles about finding your passion in life, I decided that I had to get a wiggle on. So my friend and I decided to set some goals and then check in with each other weekly to see how we were getting on. My first goal was to start a blog before my birthday and success! I registered this domain name on my 27th birthday.

Next goal: To have it functioning with all the widgets and sliders before the end of the month.

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It starts here

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They say write about what you know, and that has plagued me for a long time when thinking about starting a blog. As I feel like, of course there are lots of things I know, but nothing I know lots about. Not in the kind of in-depth and passionate way you would need to, to base a whole blog around it.  I’m more of a Jack of all trades, master of none. So eureka moment, I have decided to write about what I don’t know. Particularly, what I don’t know about what I want to do with my life. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up and as most would consider me already grown, I had better hurry up.

Let me give you a bit of background. I was good at school and so continued on to university. I studied Japanese and English at university and had my sights firmly set on the JET Programme, an exchange program for young graduates to teach English in Japanese public schools and be ambassadors in the communities we’re placed in. It is notoriously hard to get a place on the program however I was one of the lucky ones and 6 months after I finished uni I flew off to Japan in the hopes of finding myself and my passions. I loved it! But two years later I was no closer to deciding what I wanted to do with my life. I got back to New Zealand and worked in a cafe for six months while attending two fabulous weddings and sorting myself out for a move to London. My attitude when looking for a job two years ago when I arrived in London was “I’ll do anything they will let me”, and luckily so far, it has worked out quite well.

I decided at the end of last year that I was done with floating around. I wanted a clear goal to work towards. I also want to find something that really challenges me and engages my brain. So I am taking action and devoting 2014 to exploring my options. I’m going to look into all those far off musings I’ve had over the years about what I want to be, and there have been so many, and start taking them seriously. I’m going to spend about a month on each idea and really look into it, maybe start volunteering, study, read blogs, speak to others in the industry. Who knows where I’ll end up, but I’m excited.