Meet Deja Montoya

We were lucky to catch up with Deja Montoya recently and have shared our conversation below.

Deja, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

As a person who was raised the way I was raised, resilience is a word I strive to be associated with. A character trait I strive to attain.
This question has three answers.
The first answer is God. The second answer is mindset. The third answer is childhood. I’ll explain each of these beginning with the last answer.
As a child my parents put my brother and I in sports. From about age 4 to age 12 I continued in soccer and softball. Through this time my dad instilled two things in us.
“Give 110%.” & “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, as long as you give your best.”
I still carry those words with me.
In life I’ve learned — and learned to accept — that sometimes I will lose. And sometimes I will win.
I can deal with the disappointment of a loss so long as I know I gave my absolute all, and then some.
From a child I was taught to give everything.
Win or lose. As I grew, matured, and continuing developing, this sort of “relentless” mindset came into fruition. Since I was taught to give more than my all, and along with that to never back down, I fell in love with the process of tolerance. I loved to see what I could handle — what my limit was and how much I could push it.
In a bird’s eye view perspective of myself I see a soldier who is willing to go to war despite what it means for her; she doesn’t care where she ends up. And despite the outcome for her; whether she wins or loses. All she knows is give more than what she’s got — and then some.
I’m convinced — because of my immense desire to never give up, that I can face anything.
And the only reason I can have that sort of blessed confidence and assurance is because of God. There’s a verse that says His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
The fact is: I’m human.
Which means no matter how strong or consistent my desire or intent is to prevail, I will fail.
But because of God, when I am weak, even then I am strong. And when I am weak, how blessed I am. For it’s then that I find a new kind of strength — such that I did not have before.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am young Christian woman in the pursuit of the heart of God and the heart of His creation; people. I am an artist — I write my own songs as well as sing them. My goal has always been to be a voice of light, life, and hope. To speak for and to the people around me. And to simply be a voice for those who don’t have one.
I currently have an EP I plan to release this year.
In this small collection of 5 songs I’ve decided to call “the valley”, is my heart’s cry and my soul’s theme.
In this EP I will sing a tale about just that; life at the bottom — life in the valley.
My hope with this album is to reach those who find themselves walking through a similar place. To speak to their soul and hopefully point them to this truth:
Light shines brightest in the darkest of places.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I will answer this briefly:
Consistency, dedication, and passion.

Consistency has been a huge battle for me.
I have found myself doubting; uncertain about what to do next.
This only caused inconsistency and passivity.
My advice, to myself and others, learn to love consistency.
Do what you can every day. Work towards the goal, every day. Even if it’s a “small” step. Even if it’s 5 minutes of work.
The point is to never stop.
Love consistency.

The second is dedication. You may have the gift, now you need the discipline to be dedicated.
My advice, to myself and to others, remember why you started. Remember why you continue. Let this be the fuel for why you never stop.
Be dedicated to dedication.

The last is passion.
I have few memorable teachers who had a memorable positive impact on me.
The only way they could have such an impact was because they loved what they did, and they brought it to work with them. When they brought it to work with them, they brought that joy onto me. And I reaped the benefits of that.
My advice, to myself and to others, prove that you love what you do.
Let it be so evident that it drives others to find what it is they love to do.
Be passionate.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

My answer would be somewhere in the middle. I believe we all have different strengths for a reason. Differing strengths come from the fact that we all are different and have different God given gifts.
Where we excel, another may not.
Where another excels, we may not.
We all have different parts and functions.
When we come together with diverse strengths and qualities, real, meaningful, and productive work can be done.
We can be well rounded together.
At the same time this should not enable excuses to be stagnant in improving the areas we are weak in.
May that never be the case.
Recognize your strengths.
Recognize your weaknesses.
Be aware of them and know they are both a help to you.
Strengths keep you hopeful.
Weaknesses keep you humble.
When you are feeling strong, remember your weaknesses.
When you are feeling weak, remember your strengths!
Dive head first into your strengths.
Find where you excel.
Then you will find where it is you do not excel.
And when you find where you do not excel, you can use your strengths to strengthen those weak parts.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Gary Lancaster

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Where does your optimism come from?

Optimism is the invisible ingredient that powers so much of the incredible progress in society

Confidence
Stories of Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Learning from one another is what BoldJourney is all about. Below, we’ve shared stories and

Resilience
The Power of Persistence: Overcoming Haters and Doubters

Having hates is an inevitable part of any bold journey – everyone who has made