Post 1: 3 Day Challenge Accepted! 121 Posts to Go!

Kat doodles about life and accepts new challenge:

If you are reading my blog for the first time, specifically due to new challenge, let me give you little introduction. My name is Kat, I am Czech born, 28 years of age, Aries, living in the UK for more than 9 years and my friends describe me as ‘hilarious’. I left home at 19. Three days after passing A-levels I was off discovering world abroad and somehow still not planning to change that quite yet. I have gone through all sorts of jobs, adventures, but travels and art were always my thing. Somehow I got accepted to university, which has the word ‘royal’ in its name, so it sounds great when you speak to people and they give you that acknowledging look. But even going to this amazing place my life since graduation is not posh at all and I have been struggling to make my living needs only just from doing art. So I somehow currently ended up in four jobs I run in between with still never enough money to this day. The blog was born sometime ago, but with being all over the place with too many things to do, I never had enough focus to keep it going.

And then it happened! I went for this internship in interior design and was told I cannot get it, because I do not drive! It was a slap in a face for my own incapability, not the lack of talent (which of course I am questioning every day). So I decided to get my act together and set myself a challenge to blog for 92 days solid and do something productive, to get things going. To see if I can beat my fear of driving, of inner myself and get on with the career I really want to have. Otherwise I am a loser and I might simply just give up and get a “normal” job, whatever that would mean for me. And things started to look up, I finally got into that car, arty opportunities started to appear and 92 days was gone without even me realizing.

So here we are, year 2014 and I decided to create new challenge for me since the last one made a difference. I call it 3 Days Challenge. I will start today on 3rd January and will be blogging every third day! For the whole entire year. Crazy you think, I know! I think so too. But that is simply, who I am. Ideally I would like to keep each blog post more artistic and relevant rather than me going on about what I had for dinner or about that cute guy I met at work, but I am sure something like this will sneak in anyway. With the daily challenge it was difficult, so I am hoping three days is just enough time to have a bit off time off, do the normal household stuff and still be artistic in some way. I have created list of challenges I would like to achieve or at least somehow move on with:

• become fully freelance or employed in art& design- meaning doing anything in theatre design, interior design, visual merchandising, 3D related industries, decorating…
• give up my two little jobs- even to the sadness of my bosses (before they do it for me), although we always had great relationships and they both secretly know I need to get on with this “art thing”
• improve in my interpreting job- to see what I can do about moving on to next band
• learn how to drive- which will mean the actual driving, passing theory test, practical test, and then it comes to the even more expensive bit of buying the car, an insurance, plus I am sure the list goes on.
• become fluent in AutoCad and all the other related programs required by the industry- it was either this or learning how to drive, which became blatantly more important
• focus more on social media, update my Facebook Page, do more networking and use the time more effectively instead of watching funny videos as I am sure we are all guilty of.
• create a proper website since I now bought a proper domain name, which is simple enough to pronounce rather using my full name
• and obviously make sure I blog every three days- I am thinking I might do like a monthly project to stay focused, see what happens once I start.

• start translating this challenge into Czech for sister version of this blog, which has been neglected since last year. And I mean very neglected.
• have fun, meet new people, make effort. Think before I say anything, which is usually what gets into trouble. And say yes to new opportunities.

  So I think that is it! I am sure there are more resolutions, but they may appear as we go. Not ambitious list at all! Walk in a park, I say! Obviously if any of you have any ideas or would like to collaborate, let me know!

And not be alone in this crazy challenge I have these people, who feel very similar about their life. Ladies and gents, let me introduce You to all brave men and women, who taking up challenges of their own!!!

art represents:

Katdesigner and her ‘My journey on becoming full-time designer‘

Art Fn and  his Regular sketching in 2014

music to your ears will bring:

Lukas, the bass guitarist

Mr. Sawlid and Mr Dj are stopping smoking (they do not have a blog, but they will be updating me on regular basis apparently)

for the ideal trim figure is looking:

Twinmumanddad

IT/Blog list of resolutions has:

Bex with Blogging Goals 2014

and last but not least in our non resolution pile is:

Learner Mother

The Crazy Bag Lady

Now, I had a lot of interest from other people, so I guess they are waiting to see what is this whole thing about. Please feel free to join us at any time during this year, with whatever your challenge is and your decision on how to number posts. Details and few little reminders on the posting etiquette can be found here. Enjoy the journeys and happy reading!!!

Day 92: Challenge accomplished!!! 0 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

I have done it! I got to the end of the tunnel of 92 days to the lights of 2014!!! What a journey and by saying that meaning still on a journey, but with so much more exciting stuff ahead, who knows what happens?! Before I do all do thanking, let me sum up this rather eventful year and as You can see on my PF 2014 card I have included some of those moments.

So this year I:

• celebrated 9 years of living abroad and in the UK alone, you can read more about it in Day 20. I know- way too long and I only planned three months…
• got more design and decorating working for private clients, and discovered some delicious cupcakes on the way.
• went back to theatre design and scenic painting, when working on a show based on Nick Cave’s songs.
• realized how much I enjoy teaching and motivating others, so I did some lecturing and workshops of all sorts.
• moved a house, which was big chapter of my life,  and created myself a big studio space in a new one with wall ready to be painted on.
• was blatantly reminded of my fears stopping my career, so I finally started learning how to drive. Yes, what a drama queen… it is not actually as bad as I thought!
• went home to The Czech republic after year and half, enjoyed it way too much and looked for going back home to the UK again.
• started a challenge to be productive for 92 days in row and succeeded. As right now you are reading the last post!

• lost the man, who I thought shared my soul, but nevermind I wish him all the best and I am ready to meet new friends again.
• am very proud of my little French sunshine, who never seem to stop to surprise me and who was accepted into Sorbonne, although I now miss her dearly.
• finished the second course of Designing for Interiors and ever since I am thinking how to make it happen for real.
• …  and there is so much more, but not enough of virtual space…

My lovely readers, all of You who read my doodles on regular basis, all of You who read them sometimes, and You who are here for the first time, I THANK YOU ALL!!! I Thank You for Your support coming from the ones I know, who are reading, the ones who I think are reading, but do not want to admit it and the ones who read, but I do not know. I appreciate all the likes, comments and shares during this journey. You have been my silent whip getting  me up and making me do things. In 2013 I had some pretty sad times, good times and some really amazing times and met lot of great people. And of course as You know me, there is always something exciting happening in a life of Kat. So whoever was part of the journey, I am lifting my cup of currently full of honey, lemon and camomile tea and I say: Na Zdravi and have a great New Year 2014!

See You all in 3 Days time with my new challenge full of dreams and resolutions, take care and all the best! With Love Kat xx

Day 91: Nearly there!!! 1day to go!

 

Kat doodles about life:

 

 

Hello people, well this is very exciting, I am writing the one before last one post of my challenge! Gosh, who would have thought I will get to end. I certainly did not think so. Tomorrow I will be writing special PF 2014 post to sum up my year including the challenge, so this is my last opportunity really to sum up my day. As you know I got ill again, so I spent the day in bed. However I did try my best. Carrie in Sex and The City film says to Samantha  and Miranda after them getting her flat back to her just by using the phone and wi-fi during the “honeymoon” holidays in Mexico: “God, You two can rule the world!” Well I felt exactly like that. Messaging, texting, calling, social networking from comfort of my bed whilst eating a beautiful plate of cheese and biscuits and drinking countless cups of tea with honey and lemon. Simply joy!

 

I have been spreading the link to my challenge to pretty much every website I could, contacting my friends, who kind of thought about it in the past or planning to join me vaguely confirming and helping to make few people think differently about how to approach the resolutions with fun and not as I must. There is one thing I was wondering about, I have currently a friend, who lives in Belgium and he is learning Dutch. I have been trying show him ways of learning the language in more fun way. Is there anyone, who has great tips for that or fancies meeting up with him? He is a very street wise guy, loves to travel and is very funny. I told him perhaps starting a blog or something, where he can learn new word a day. There is a very useful page on Facebook, where you can learn useful “street” words in English/ Czech about three times a week, so I wondered perhaps if there is anything similar for Dutch. Any suggestions for websites, films, anything what comes to your mind, are welcome

 

What made me really happy today, my new student (you know that talented chef I have been telling you about) managed get through an interview and is invited for a trial period this week as kitchen porter. I am so happy for him. I hope he gets it! I have no doubt about him feeling like a fish in a water as soon as he is back in the kitchen environment!

 

So that is it, I cannot think of any other update, apart from feel free to share my link to the new challenge and I will see you tomorrow! Love Kat xx

https://katdesigner.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/join-me-in-new-3-days-challenge/

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOIN ME IN NEW 3 DAYS CHALLENGE!

JOIN ME IN NEW 3 DAYS CHALLENGE!: 3 Days Challenge, 122 Posts, One Year! Better You!

Would you like to get yourself motivate it? Does your New Year’s resolution fails before the end of the 1st January? Is there something you always wanted to achieve, but never got your act together? Loosing weight, learning how drive, taking photographs more often, going to travel, but did not save enough money? For the last 3 months= 92 days (nearly there) I have been blogging every single day. It got me so motivated, I am on fire to get me where I want to be. So why not to join me and do the same thing for yourself?! I achieved more in the last three months then I anticipated and that virtual whip of people reading of what I am up to has definitely worked.

So what do you need to do is to e-mail me (katerina.t.designer@gmail.com) with your challenge updates or ideas, or your blog address or add it to comments below this post. I will always be posting every third day, so from now on you have simply 7 days to figure out what you want to do be doing and on 3rd January 2014 we will be starting and I cannot wait to read your blogs or just e-mail updates with how you are doing. I will be regularly updating that first post if someone joins us later.

If you feel 3 days is not very relevant to what you would like to achieve, you can extended to anything up 7 days, but I guess nothing more than that. Feel free to join the comments, so we can perhaps help you what to do with your updates or posts. No offense to anyone, but I am really looking for genuine people with genuine reasons to join the challenge and learning new skills or self developing. None of this earn money by blogging, clicking on blogs or competitions or anything else is welcome. However if you do this and still to want to join the challenge, for example you like cooking, then please create specific challenge category for recipes and cooking and drive links to that section. I do not want to send away people for the wrong reasons. I am reserving the right to withdraw blogs if they are not following rules or are inappropriate.

Now everything is clear! Everyone excited?!! Excellent!!! Love Kat

P.S. Do not forget it is about motivation, having fun and getting better. I know it sounds terrifying being committed to this for one whole year, but once you get going and have fun, you won’t even realize we are halfway through. There is nothing to loose, nothing to pay, just give it a go and see what happens.

Day 81: Third driving lesson and getting others motivated! 11 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

I am not very good at getting up, in case you have not noticed. I like to have time to wake up slowly, have a good breakfast, check the e-mail, and then start. When working in catering, there are not many days like this. I used to even wake up 4 am to start at 5 :30 am. Thank God those days are over. I am rather used to work until late at night or early hours of the morning, or even to carry on the next day without any sleep. I had many of these ‘the adrenalin is high, let’s just carry on’ situations during my theatre design degree. Being ill for the last four weeks did not help either, because my body clock is used to sleeping whenever, so last night I set up my alarm on about ten different times as my third driving lesson was booked for 8 am. It was either that or driving on 24th December, which is my Christmas Day. What do you think happened? Of course I overslept! Good job I had everything ready, so in five minutes I was sitting in the car trying to quickly wake up before we swap the sides. I guess it is a good exercise to experience, because it will happen in real life simply knowing how much I like ‘the mornings’.

My last lesson was five weeks ago, plus with this late start, I thought I am going to be terrible, but it was not as bad as I expected. Obviously there were few panic moments, but it was just due to getting into more complicated traffic situations. However there was an improvement from first to second gear straight away, putting gear into first one, when starting, I even went up to 30 mph, drove up some fairly steep hills, went through junctions with more traffic and lot more stopping and starting up and down the hill.  The car suddenly does not feel as terrifying and certain moves are becoming a habit. I am quite happy I waited this long, because I have the knowledge of the highway code from cycling, less things to learn, nevermind doing it in second language and on the opposite side, and I am confident enough to say something in case I would not be happy with my driving instructor. Mine is so friendly, patient and easygoing, it makes such a difference, when I make a mistakes. If I would be 17 and had a stressed driving instructor as you hear some of the horror stories, I am not sure if I would be strong enough to say I am not happy with the way you teach me and I would go blank and panic even lot more . Thankfully that is not the case and so far I am making progress, so that is great to know.

I spent the afternoon getting few things done including correction of my new student’s cv. We spoke on the phone later and he was very excited telling me about that Italian cookbook I left there, as I mentioned two posts ago. He was very happy flicking through, translated four recipes, wrote down the vocabulary he needed to look for in a dictionary and even made one of the recipes! How impressive! I was so pleased my personalised first lesson got him so motivated, so when he goes out tomorrow searching for the job again, I hope he is more successful. I am sure he will be speaking in no time with this attitude.

It is really wonderful, when people believe in you and you believe in others. Getting excited, more understanding and patient were the qualities I missed a lot in my school days from some of my teachers. It does not mean you are stupid, just the way you learn more effectively is different and you should not be punished for it. I have discovered that once I left abroad, had the experience of life and started to study the Foundation Diploma in Art&Design, here in the UK. When coming home for holidays I started doing these talks in Art and English lessons back at the same school, where I started. And I can tell you my English teacher was not happy, when I told the students that I was really bad and definitely not her favourite. And as the years went on and I got accepted to university here or passed CPE last year, she would still have that judgemental look on her face every time I saw her and would not really believe me. And you know what and I may never be absolutely perfect, but it is more than enough to make me live the way I want to. Bohumil Hrabal, writer, who went to our school, who failed in Czech language, or Albert Einstein, when failing Maths, were always my great heroes. And look how far they got! Failure does not mean stupidity!

It is not about how much you know and being academic type, it is about how you find it, use it and make it work. It is about being motivated, believing in your dreams and working hard for them. Attitude Czech education is definitely missing and when recently reading this article, it seems it still does, although it may be getting better since the new generation of teachers is going in and the speedy development of the technology. So anyway to end this critical point I have about Czech primary and secondary education, I am very happy about this rather productive Friday and how great it is to bring happiness to other people when using the right teaching methods. Back tomorrow. Kat xx

Day 9: Your challenges! 83 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

So today’s post should have been written yesterday, but I was keen to do more research on this, so I kind of had to wait and postpone:-) I would like to like pass on some motivation and tell you about the feedback I had in the past nine days.

So regarding You all, who I have been speaking to and the ones who said it sounds really interesting, however did not want and could not join this challenge I thought I will give out some examples of people, who were willing to think and perhaps need some encouragement from others. There won’t be any names, if they are reading, they will know, who I am talking about. So feel free to add to your wisdom, advice, experience as a comment, I am sure they will hugely appreciate it.

Person number 1: She has two challenges. The first one is to start running and the second one is to find time to be lazy or said in rather sophisticated way to indulge herself. So how could she possibly do this? I was thinking there two ways of how to deal with the running. You can set yourself first a certain amount of miles and see it your tempo improves on every day basis, perhaps making note of the weather conditions might help to see how it affects it. Once she is comfortable with the pace, perhaps extending the journey again will improve as the fitness did during the shorter run. To make this work in a long-term, depending on how confident runner she becomes, perhaps finding a date or a half marathon or marathon in the calendar could work as a goal and working towards that. I used to run, however just for fun, so if there are any experienced runners, feel free to add what is the best way.

Now the challenge is to be more lazy or indulge herself. Now I stopped eating chocolate few months ago, there won’t be any of this on my list, but perhaps reading a book every day half an hour before you go to bed. Or even a magazine. As explained in previous post, as used from the book of David Allen, keep a pile of all the things you need to read through by your bed. You have that little time before falling asleep, it will make you relaxed. Depending on your mood, you can choose anything from fashion magazine, industry reports to just book you got for Christmas and still have not had the time to open. Perhaps taking bath could be another indulging moment. Pick a film for every night of the week. Call a friend.

Person number 2: So this is rather exciting as I share this challenge with him too and that is to get ourselves to drive. And his girlfriend wants that too. They both actually got themselves into a bit of a rival competition few days earlier, who can learn first. I was going to pass on some details when he sends an e-mail he promised last night, but I still didn’t get one. You won’t win like this Mr.?!  I received my passport through the post yesterday, so hopefully within the next two weeks I will receive the provisional one. As said before, I have already been forced/motivated to  go through theory tests, I reckon this weekend I will do more practising.

Person number 3: He would like to tackle a new skill and start learning Spanish or Chinese. Obviously the typical way would be researching colleges, however when it comes to learning languages I feel personally it needs to come naturally to you. So putting an advert on Gumtree or searching for one and perhaps swapping your language skills could be an option. I did it with lovely young French lady last year, who was here for Erasmus Exchange studying law. I taught her English and she taught me French. By the end up we ended up really good friends and spent many nights tasting wine in Gallimaufry on Gloucester Road. I did not learn much French to be honest, but she really improved her  English and here we get to another way of learning. Go to the right place. When I lived in Netherlands, in only four months just knowing basic school English and German, I got to understand pretty much everything they said in Dutch and could use some basic phrases, when speaking.   Exactly the same thing happened in Bulgaria during my three months Erasmus Exchange and I am not even talking about Great Britain. After nine years over here-  I speak, dream, eat, feel, do everything in English. To the point I cannot any longer speak properly Czech and for everyone back  home I am the foreign girls who speaks Czech with English accent.  So here we are find yourself a foreign friend and start.

Person number 4: He would like to stop smoking. Not only it is bad for you, it makes everything around you stink, nothing pleasant to smell for others and lastly think how much you are spending. What did you say? You wanted to go on that holiday? Just think if the packet costs about £8 and you smoke 3 packets in a week, that makes it £1 248 of saving. Now that is worth pretty luxury holidays for two. Or that shopping trip to New York. Whatever you fancy. Some of my friends find the quite easy to use vaping products. This particular friend is using tablets, apparently it is that kick he is after. He did have few wobbles, so let’s see how it he does in a long-term.

And last but not least friend number 5: She has also two challenges. The first one is to save enough money to buy a car and the second is to change a career and become massage therapist. We have been “finding solutions” last night over few cocktails and came up with few different options. How to save money for a car. Although it is not much, at least it is something to start you off. One way is to stop buying magazines. There is plenty of gossip online, again the same kind magazines are left in doctor’s surgeries or hairdressers and if you think about it even if you actually buy yourself one of those magazines, there is not much new you would not know about particular celebrity. Recently joining Twitter, I realized, they are all there anyway. If you feel you really need to keep buying a particular one as it is about gardening or photography then subscribe. You can save yourself half or in some cases even three-quarters of the price. So instead of paying £4, you only pay a pound. If you sign up and there is another magazine being published by the same publisher, they usually give discount again or even better deal. Another option is to sign to freebie websites and order your free copy of magazines offered. Again most likely it will come with a phone call few days later and option of subscribing for cheaper than you would normally. Buying expensive once a month magazine and two gossip ones per week, can save you around £120 in 6 months. But also think about the extra coffee, perhaps chocolates bar or sandwich you are purchasing at the same time. It all adds up and £5 is gone you do not even know it. My little way of how to keep the change is to put them into “bee jar”. I have two. One for pound coins, when getting a bus. The second one is for all the other change. And trust me it is getting pretty heavy right about now.

Her second challenge is to change a career and perhaps becoming a massage therapist. My suggestion was to follow advice from a program: The Fairy Job Mother. Get in touch with all the saloons and say that you would like to spend a day following them and giving them a hand if they let you. Do it once every two weeks during your day off and in six months you will get amazing overview what it involves. You never know, who you may end up talking to and getting a job from. By offering your help for a day when not being really educated within the industry can give you clear idea if this is the right career for you and they get a help with putting dirty towels away. Obviously you have to start somewhere.

Enough for today, I hope you enjoyed reading about fellow readers, who are thinking of joining me. Feel free to let me know if you fancy joining us too and keep sharing and reading. With love Kat xx

Day 7: Week one review! 85 days to go!

Kat doodles about life:

7 days! Hellooo!  I am feeling very excited as I managed to not only do something creative every single day for the past seven days to get closer to my career, but I also managed to blog about it. What is rather more exciting, I feel a bit of a thrill from blogging and the adrenalin is high pushing me more thinking about ideas. I have now actually that many, I feel almost as 92 days may not be enough to write about all of them. And I know this must sound pretty hilarious. I have also noticed the speed I am writing these posts with. Depending on the subject, but it takes me somewhere between hour or two with the corrections and adding Instagram (katerinatdesigner) picture to make it look more exciting. I am also starting to feel that my written English is improving. Obviously long way to go, but I am working on it, so it is a progress. There is a Czech band called Mnaga & Zdorp and they sing this beautiful song that ‘even a journey can be finishing line’ (search for ‘I cesta muze byt cil‘).

In one week I have done and wrote about more things than I would imagine if I did not make so much fuss about it to the outside world. The push has certainly worked. I am fearing the moment when someone  will message me asking ‘Where is your daily post’? So far I covered topics from purpose of this blog to tips on how to organize yourself and get things done based on the advice given by David Allen. From the important theme of cv, different cv sites and useful feedback on mistakes in my own cv to joining Twitter (@katerinatdesign) in order to get more people to join my challenge, update me achieving their dreams and obviously making my point of looking for creative career more obvious. I started tackling my fear of driving and got myself to watch the theory dvd. Having a bit of emotional roller coaster from high to low, to high and low again I am finishing the week on high celebrating when getting to this point by inspiring people with scrapbook ideas in yesterday’s post and going to pass on another little paragraph from David’s book today. During the past 7 days I received some really wonderful supportive messages, had many new followers and even few people telling me what they would like to achieve. Although no one has confirmed officially what they will do or if they actually started. So come on people, take an example from me and get on with it! And trust me, you will feel great! Don’t be shy and e-mail me on katerina.t.designer@gmail.com

Since this post is about weekly review, David Allen is giving out these tips to do so:

• Loose paper into basket.- Get a basket or a box and fill it up with anything you feel you need to deal with. From receipts, postcards, objects, your diary ,pieces of paper, notepads, drawings etc. Absolutely anything. If it doesn’t fit inside, describe bit on a piece of paper. Go around the house and do it with every room(for example decorating the room, fixing broken light in the hallway). Like this you will end up with clearer space to work on and all your things to do in one box.
• Process data.- Go though the box and use simple diagram technique I have posted in Day 1 post.  Do I need this, if no, Trash it. If Yes, do I need to make some kind of action with it? If not file it into review or read, if so and it takes less than two minutes, do it. If longer divide it- put into to pile Next Action, Waiting for (e-mail reply, buying certain equipment or something else to happen in order to do it, last pile is future someday/may be things to do)
• Previous data from calendar review.- Fairly straight forward, look at what have you done this week or add tasks or things to relevant pile.
• Upcoming calendar.- the same again, but this coming week or possibly a month if needed.
• Empty your head.- Do you need to pop in to see your friend or send timesheet in, write it down. There is a very high chance it may disappear from your head and you will totally forget it.
• Review projects (and larger outcome).- Look at projects  you are working on and want to work on and don’t leave until you write a note of what is the next task on it. Do you need to call Pete to start organizing event in order to promote your products, either call him now or put it on the list of calls. You won’t move on with a project until you establish what is the next step.
• Review next Action Plan list.- Go through the pile of tasks which make take longer than two minutes and do as described within the point above.
• Review Waiting for.- Waiting for phone call (were you expecting one, did the person forget), has your order arrived yet, so you can get on with things etc.
• Review any relevant check list.- I hope that speaks for itself.
• Review Someday/May be.- You would like to learn French, take an exam, learn how to drive, plan trip around the world. Think what is the next step to make it happen. Do you need to start researching language schools online, start saving etc.?!
• Review Reading& Support files- Go through magazines or leaflets or anything you collect over the time, if you find something interesting to read, tear the pages out and put in pile of reading, which you can do before going to bed, or keep it together and just highlight pages it with sticky post it notes.
• Be creative and courageous.- 😀

Advice points above taken from the book of David Allen: Getting Things Done and explained by me.

Have a lovely day, take care and don’t forget to update me on your progress. With love, back tomorrow. Kat xx