Day 26 of the 7-40 Challenge
I just finished Michael Hyatt’s book Your Best Year Ever.
And then he said something that I can’t stop thinking about:
If you have a goal that you’ve never been able to fully achieve, maybe it’s time to just let it go.
I finished the book and had to ponder that for a long time.
The Ideas I’ve Carried for Years
I have ideas that have been with me for years. Projects I wanted to work on. Tasks I wanted to accomplish. Dreams I’ve nurtured and protected and promised myself I’d get to “someday.”
Many of these ideas are near and dear to me.
But Hyatt’s words won’t leave me alone: Maybe it’s time to just let it go.
Because if I’m honest? Some of these ideas are relics of a time gone by. They belonged to an earlier version of me—a version that had different priorities, different resources, different seasons of life.
I think we do with ideas what we do with children. When the idea is young, we hold it close. We nurture it. We help it grow. We tell ourselves stories about what it will become.
And we get attached. But unlike children, ideas don’t grow up on their own. That is where the metaphor breaks down.
The Weight of Carrying Dead Dreams
Here’s what I’m realizing on Day 26: some of the ideas I’ve been carrying aren’t just old. They’re dead.
But I’ve been too sentimental to bury them.
I keep them on my “someday” list because letting them go feels like admitting defeat. Like I failed. Like I gave up.
But what if holding onto them is actually what’s keeping me from the work I’m supposed to be doing right now?
The 7-40 Challenge exists because I finally said: “This year, I have things I want to accomplish now. These 7 habits will take me there.” Not the other twenty ideas I’ve been carrying. Not the projects from five years ago that still sound good. Just these seven. For 280 days.
And making that choice meant saying goodbye to a lot of other ideas.
Some of them deserved to be set aside. They were good ideas for a different season but not for this one.
But some of them? I’ve been dragging them along for years, and it’s exhausting.
What Hyatt Made Me Face
There’s a project I’ve wanted to work on for almost a decade. Every year, I tell myself this is the year I’ll finally do it. Every year, life gets in the way. Or I lose momentum. Or I realize I don’t actually have the time or resources it would take.
But I keep it on the list. Because letting it go feels like losing a piece of who I thought I was.
Hyatt’s words won’t let me hide from that anymore: If you have a goal you’ve never been able to fully achieve, maybe it’s time to just let it go.
Maybe it’s not failure. Maybe it’s freedom.
Maybe the person I’m becoming doesn’t need that project anymore. Maybe it served its purpose just by existing—showing me what I wanted to care about, even if I never actually did the work.
And maybe—this is the hard part—maybe I loved the idea of it more than I ever loved doing the actual work.
Letting Go So Something Else Can Live
I don’t have all the answers on Day 26. I don’t know which ideas stay and which ones need to be released.
But I know this: I can’t hold onto everything.
Because we’ve been made in the image of God, we are naturally creative. Ideas will keep coming. There will always be new projects, new dreams, new “what ifs.”
But I only have so much time. So much energy. So much life.
The work of Day 25 isn’t just doing my seven habits. It’s sitting with Hyatt’s words and asking: Which ideas am I carrying out of nostalgia instead of mission? Which ones do I let go of?
And then—this is the really hard part—thanking them for what they were and letting them go.
So something else can live.
Day 26: Complete ✓
All seven habits executed. Another perfect day in the books.
Round 1 Progress: 26/40 days (62.5%)
See you tomorrow for Day 27.
The 740 Challenge 