Meet Dr. Brenda

Passion and persistence are the keys to building a fabulous life.

Add in a bit of good fortune and you will be unstoppable.

Adversity. Now that’s a word I know well. Like many, my life has been shaped by adversity.

As a young girl, I dreamed of a life beyond the family farm. Education would be my way out …or so I believed.

At the age of 30, I earned my doctoral degree in Sociology. With the new PhD in hand, I was ready to set the world on fire. A month later I was downsized from my university job and entered an anemic academic market in the midst of state budget cuts. I slipped into poverty as career prospects grew dim.

Three years and four states later, I finally caught a break, landing a position as a Crime Analyst. And less than a year later, I drove to the outskirts of the nation’s capital and began my dream job, carrying out national-scope research on justice system issues. Eventually, I made one more career move, spending more than 16 years researching and promoting court reform.

My career was wildly successful - I received national awards and even testified in front of Congress. But I was worn out from the work trips, long hours, dysfunctional workplace, and the slow pace of reform. And I had become increasingly distraught by the political landscape of divisiveness and negativity. I turned to writing as an escape, launching The Five Journeys in July 2017.

Later that fall, for the first time ever in my career, I took a month of vacation. I had an amazing time, and when I returned to the office, something had changed. Vacation had brought COLOR back into my life…work was filled with BEIGE. I fell into a rut. And that’s when the 30-Day Challenges were born. The Challenges finally outgrew my website and are now housed at Better Life Challenges.

Brenda