Day 49 — The 7-40 Challenge
February 23, 2026
I spent some time today going through old papers. Old goals. Old to-do lists. Old projects. I hoard projects the way some people hoard shoes, apparently.
I was reviewing them to see where my mind has been — not just recently, but for several years. And what I found surprised me. Many of the goals I’m working on today are goals I’ve been working on for quite some time, whether I called them by the same name or not.
A pattern is emerging: I was more productive than I was giving myself credit for. And some of the successes I’m having today are standing on the shoulders of things I did years ago — things I may not have been completely ready for at the time.
What do I mean by that?
I’ve been listening to Linchpin by Seth Godin. If I had to break the book down into one tagline, it would be this: listen to your inner genius and defeat the resistance. When I was younger, I understood what that meant. But I didn’t understand it the way I do today. Maybe that’s a product of age, time, and perspective. Probably all three.
Here’s what I realize now: my resistance — my hesitation, my inability to push projects forward — had much more to do with not knowing what I was doing than it did with motivation. I was plenty motivated. I was working hard.
I wrote a children’s book years ago. I had an idea, wanted to get it out, wanted to push it onto Amazon so people could share the story with me and, honestly, so I could make some money. I think I sold ten copies. That might be generous. I was probably in the hole after all the printing and formatting and noise it took to get it right.
But here’s the thing — it wasn’t that I couldn’t get a product put together. I could. I did. The book existed. The problem was that I didn’t understand fundamentally how to do the next step. I didn’t even have the framework to ask the right questions.
Fast forward to now. I just published a teen superhero novel set in the 1990s called Phase Defiant. I got it onto Amazon KDP just a couple of days ago. I’m working through a few final revision items Amazon wants before the print version goes live.
And I’m at this place again — the place where the creative work is done and the real work begins.
But this time is different. Instead of wishing and hoping things will go well, I have a plan. I’ve laid out a research-based approach to getting eyes on my book. I’m using the tools at my disposal. I’m studying ARC teams, BookTok strategies, content marketing, audience building. I’m turning research into actionable items.
This is the part I didn’t understand when I was younger: just getting your idea done does not mean you are successful. It means you can finish a project. But finishing the project doesn’t mean everybody’s naturally going to love it, because once you finish it, the real work apparently begins — getting people to notice it, recognize it, and love it just as much as you do.
I want to embrace this next part of the journey. I’m truly proud of this book. I believe the themes in it and the story it tells are worthy of people’s time. I hope that when teen readers finish it, they’re encouraged by the protagonist. That they’re asking good questions about their own lives. That there’s a general feeling they just went on an adventure that was worth the ride.
I say all this to say: I’m much further than where I was. My lack of knowledge now isn’t a stumbling block. It’s an opportunity to take my enthusiasm to the next level. And by practicing these seven daily habits every day, I’m setting myself up for the kind of structure I need to keep building.
The goals haven’t changed much in ten years. But I have. And that makes all the difference.
The 740 Challenge 