Turning Down Good Opportunities to Chase After Your Dream Life

Hey friends,

At 16 I convinced myself that I'd be a NYT Best Selling Author--you know, millions of copies sold worldwide, movie deals--the whole shebang!

Oh yeah, all before I hit 25-years-old...

At 18 I completed my first novel and sent it off to 100 different literary agents expecting the same results as Twilight or The Hunger Games.

A huge publishing house would buy the rights and then soon after I'd meet with studio executives about casting.

Just slightly obsessed with the Hunger Games...

Guess what?

That, um, didn't happen.

While I did receive several good rejection letters no one took me on as a client.

And even though I could make wallpaper out of my rejection letters I kept on writing.

My book still hasn't been published yet, but five essays of mine were in Chicken Soup for the Soul. (Listen to one by clicking here.)

Very proud of my published works so far...

In college I double-majored in Film & English, but quickly grew bored with it.

After taking one psychology class I switched majors and suddenly wanted to know all about the brain. I wanted to know how this three-pound blob of fat in our heads controlled everything about us.

I excelled in classes like Advance Neurophysiological Psychology and was a teaching assistant.

I volunteered with a group called Northwest Noggin, speaking at assemblies to middle-grade and high schoolers about the brain. I even presented in Washington DC at a neuroscience conference.

I mean y'all, I was all in.

Presenting at a Neuroscience Conference in Washington D.C.

Still, I had no idea what to do with my life.

Counselor.

Researcher.

Forensic Psychologist.

Neurosurgeon.

I was totally overwhelmed.

By the time I graduated college in 2015 I'd been following Jesus for 7 months and was learning about terms like "God's will" and wondering what that looked like for my life.

What on earth did He want me to do?

Books like Garden City by John Mark Comer and Following Jesus in the Real World by Richard Lamb helped me sort out this answer.

Also, one Sunday I heard a sermon on how Jesus wasn't a people pleaser and said no to things.

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely a people pleaser and there was a part of me that felt like I had to go to Grad School.

People ooooohed and ahhhhhed whenever I mentioned that I wanted to be a neuro-whatever and a little part of me basked in that approval.  

But deep, down after talking with my brother I knew I wanted to take my life in a different direction.

Then came time for my interview with a professor at UC Irvine to discuss applying to the Grad/PhD program there.

Working in the lab at UC Irvine. I helped dissect freshly removed brains!

He told me, “The difference between undergraduate and graduate work is that now you are applying what you've learned to the real world and are using your creativity to solve problems instead of reading about them.”

A lightbulb went off in my head as I realized God didn't put me on this planet to solve Alzheimer's.

Obviously, I want a cure and sure, I can spout out a ton of facts about the brain because I am highly interested in it, but I didn’t want to use my creative energies to solve the world's neuroscience problems.

Instead, I want to write books, make videos, travel, and be a motivational speaker one day.

Writing is my TRUE passion and what I'm good at.

And guess what?

I said, “This isn't for me.”

How about you? Are you going down a path that isn’t for you? Is it time to say no to something? Even if that something is good?

Take Care,

Amanda