About The Banana

Me and our cat, Gael (his face got cut off, sorry)

I’ve been a victim of procrastination for years.

My name is Shiela Talana. I’ve been working in the BPO industry for almost eleven years — without the results I wanted. Being the eldest, I was giving the responsibility to take care of my younger siblings, most especially financially — but I ended up being a dependent to my younger sister who works as a teacher in a known university. Do you know why?

It’s procrastination.

Behind the Blog

I semi-graduated in Far Eastern University. I’ve been looking for jobs for three years — until I finally landed on what I thought a content writing job in 2010 — but it turned out to be something I didn’t expect. Good thing it was later turned into a home-based job and I stayed with them until 2013, until I decided to find another job that will push my adventurous side of me: commuting every night to take calls.

In my eleven years of working in a BPO industry, I would say I’ve already handled almost everything: doing emails, taking calls, handling chats, and just recently, checking documents if they are doable. I’ve handled almost every nature as well: sales, financial, technical, customer service. But why, in my eleven years working in this industry, I remained in an agent position, where I can be qualified for a higher position if given a chance? Believe me, I tried to apply for higher positions a number of times, only to end up being rejected or even not being endorsed at all because ‘there are more suitable candidates for a particular position’. I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong…

And then, a recorded webinar made me shift the blame to myself.

An Eye-Opener

Tired of getting the same results every day to the point that my old hobbies like drawing have been discarded for a long time, I decided to take a risk after coming across a vlog on Youtube for aspiring virtual assistants, and introduced me to Amazon.

The thing is, I have heard several times about Virtual Assistants long before I watched that particular video, but as someone who was afraid to take risk, I never researched nor studied what a VA does. Thanks to the video, it made me realize that by becoming a VA, I can generate an income which is double or even triple than what I am getting at this moment, which made me decided…

Maybe, this is the job that will save me.

I thought of joining the Amazon Seller VA MasterClass way back December, but I don’t have any money to enroll in their course since I’ve already used it up to open my savings account apart from having a payroll account. So have no choice but to wait and earn as an agent as usual until passing by a loaning company in a mall gave me an idea. I filed for a loan and used the proceeds to enroll. And finally, I now have access on how I’ll be able to survive the VA industry and earn at the same time.

With the videos that I’ve watched from there, each of them slapped me to face the truth as to why I stuck in a mediocre position. I’ve been dreaming of having a better life with myself and my siblings, having our own house, eating good food, giving our cats better places and having the freedom to do things I’ve been done back in high school. But in all those years dreaming and trying ideas to make it happen, did I even take risk? NO. Why?

I’m scared of taking risks from the start.

Thus, This Blog

While learning the courses, I was pushed to create a blog to remind myself not to slack off. Now, here’s the thing: I’ve made a few blogs before, and none of them has been updated since I last touched them — because of procrastination. It’s not because I’m running out of ideas, but because I have lots of ideas in mind, only to end up scattered in my brain that it became exhausting for me when and how to start. So hopefully, this blog will help me stay focused on what I have to do and what I should have done even before ideas about becoming a VA came into my life.

I believe this will be suitable for procrastinators like me, so you’ll find some tips, tricks and stories on how to overcome it, how to make your boring life a little bit more adventurous, and at the same time, how to be brave enough to take risks. Later, you’ll see yourself asking yourself why you didn’t do it in the first place and what exactly you did in those years. This blog is made not to blame you for your laziness, but to open your eyes on what you can do more. Because like I’ve said before, everyone wants to have a better life. But dreaming about it and sticking to a low-paying job will not work without adding extra effort, motivation to do things you’ve never done in your life, and most of all, believing in the power of prayer.

I hope you enjoy what you have read so far, and I promise to make my site better to be diligent in posting stuff here. Help me, too, if you want to see more. Be my mom and dad to tell me…

STOP PROCRASTINATING!

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