Daniela Monje Reyna

I attribute my success to keep trying, even if you fail more than once, and trusting yourself that you have all the tools and you are going to achieve it. I think sometimes we are so dependent on what others tell us - if the teacher tells us that we are doing it right, if my co-workers tell me, if my boss tells me. But what happens if they don't give you that social reward, or what you're expecting, right? You have to believe in yourself that, okay, I know that I'm capable to do this, I'm going to try again. And I think that's what helps you to be successful - you endorse yourself.

The best advice I think is that if you are not enjoying what you are doing, you don't have future in that area, whatever it is. You're going to be burned out, really, if you're not enjoying it. If you are upset to wake up and thinking to go work, that's a bad sign that something has to change. If you're worried, oh, no, I have to go work again, that's not good.

I would say not to close yourself to other opportunities, to different opportunities. Stay open to them. For example, when I entered to the neuroscience field, I was coming more from the clinical area as a psychologist, and more in the arts, because all my life I was doing arts. I started playing tennis since I was young, so that was more my area. I was really a little scared to enter into something more hard, like chemistry or things like that, that were out of my comfort zone, totally. And I was a little scared of the medical doctors, or not being at the level. So I'm just open to the possibility that maybe it will be something that I will enjoy, and once that I discovered the brain and all what it does, I was amazed. I was in love with the brain, really. I was able to join those two passions, love for music, and the brain, and all their processes, and how that helps people, and how that influences their perception.

I will say one of the biggest challenges right now is that I would like to get my license here in the United States, and the challenge is all the regulations that you have to fulfill when you come from another country. They make it really difficult. It's unfair. That's the challenge right now - I know that if I want to improve in my career, or feel fulfilled in what I want to do in the clinical area, I have to go through all that, so it's like recharge energy and just go through that, all that paperwork and board certifications and all that stuff.

The values most important to me are honesty, reliability, and punctuality. Time is something that we cannot get back, never. So, that's important.