Author: David Willis

Thank You Campaign: The Mentor Who Saw What I Couldn’t See

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Today is Day 25 of the 7-40 Challenge—Sunday, January 25th, 2026. I’ve marked out every Sunday this year as my day to express gratitude for someone or something specific. I call it the Thank You Campaign.

I truly believe that gratitude—keeping a grateful heart—is one of the things that leads to personal happiness, fulfillment, and in many ways, success. I also think it’s something God wants from me: to be grateful. And I am so incredibly grateful for so many things.

Today’s topic is mentoring.

Why Mentoring Matters More Than Ever

Over the years, I’ve had some very good mentors—professionally, through books, and teachers I’d consider mentors. But that role of stepping alongside someone and helping them become more than they are is powerful and so very much needed in today’s world.

We get lost in the idea that technology will be able to do almost everything we do today. I think we forget that with the advances of technology, we have to become more human in our interactions if we truly want to be happy. This is nowhere more real than in being a mentor or having a mentor.

When I Didn’t Know My Own Potential

When I was a younger man, I did not know my own potential. I think that’s the case many of us find ourselves in.

I was a music major in college, and not long after meeting and marrying my wife, I realized music was no longer what I wanted to do. So I went to the counselor’s office and asked for “the quickest route to victory.” I know—stupid as that sounds. I went to a 4-year university and played either-or with my major. They gave me two options: sociology or journalism.

I should have chosen journalism. With my interest in writing, fact-finding, and working through details, that would have made great sense today. But I chose sociology. At that time, I was a youth pastor, and the idea of studying groups of people and understanding how they work together made sense. I thought it fit where I was in my life.

Not long after I had my degree in sociology, I was no longer a youth pastor. I had absolutely no idea professionally what I could or wanted to do.

The Wilderness Years

So I did what many people do—I took a series of odd jobs.

I worked as a salesman for the Thomas Kinkade Gallery. Not really my speed. Beautiful art, but I didn’t have much fun selling it.

I worked as an assistant manager at Pizza Hut, where I ate entirely too much pizza over six months. Not my dream job. A very thankless position. It makes me incredibly grateful now when restaurant service is stellar, because when people are hungry, man, they don’t treat you well. Did I see that firsthand.

I also spent time spraying yards at a grass company. That was horrendous in so many ways—not just the job itself, but some of the characters I worked with. I’ll talk about that some other time.

Then I worked as an office manager at an insurance claims firm. This is where I actually started paying attention to my skills and trying to get better at what I was doing.

Enter David

While at that job, I was attending a church in Northwest Oklahoma City. I told one of the pastors that I needed a mentor—I wanted a Christian businessman to come alongside me and help me see the things I wasn’t seeing, help me reframe where I was in my life.

Through this connection, I met a man named David.

David was a salesman—a very successful salesman. He was also a dedicated and devoted husband and a very good father. He was just generally a good dude.

He quickly took me under his wing. Met with me week over week. Did his best to show me what the stability of focusing on your current position and becoming excellent at it could do.

As I watched him, as we studied parts of the Bible together, as we talked about business and life, I started to grow more confident in myself. I started to understand that I had agency and the ability to choose how I reacted to my situations.

Did that make things automatically better? No, it didn’t.

But it gave me hope where I had previously been hopeless.

What His Belief Changed

I was so beat down. So desperate for change.

Having somebody take me seriously—somebody see that I could be more than I was—meant more to me than I can describe.

Not long after we began meeting together, I switched jobs into the career field I’m in now. David was one of the people who helped me see that I could actually do something new, that I could do more than I had expected, and that I had agency where I didn’t realize I did.

I’ve been in my current career more than 18 years now.

The Echo of Influence

I look in the mirror, and I no longer see that person I was back then. Much of it has faded away.

Every once in a while, though, I still see him in there. He still wonders if he’s good enough. He still wonders if he has what it takes to do these things well.

And I can remember David’s example—and many others—showing me that yes, I do have what it takes. Yes, I can make good choices. And yes, the work that I do matters.

Thank You, David

David, if you’re reading these words, know that I appreciate you, my friend. Even though we haven’t talked in quite some time, you hold a very special place in my heart and in the path I’ve been on and the person I am today.

Thank you for your influence. Thank you for your example.

I appreciate you.

Day 24: The Journey Is Better With Friends (But First, You Build Alone)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Twenty-four days into the 7-40 Challenge, and I’m reading Michael Hyatt’s chapter “The Journey Is Better With Friends.”

He’s right. The journey IS better with friends.

But here’s what I’m learning on Day 24: sometimes you have to build the foundation alone before the friends arrive.

Four Inches of Snow and Below-Zero Wind Chills

This morning there were four inches of snow on the ground with below-zero wind chills outside.

My plan was walking. The system said walking.

So I adapted: DDP Yoga instead.

The habit got done. The system flexed to reality. That’s what the 40-day cycles allow – adjustment without abandonment.

But that’s not what I want to talk about today.

The Goal-Sharing Paradox

Michael Hyatt says something important in this chapter: don’t tell your goals to everybody. Tell them to people who are also goal-setters and achievers.

The dream-killers will tell you “that’s unrealistic” or “you’ll never do that.”

The achievers will ask “what’s your plan?” and “how can I help?”

Here’s the tension I’m sitting in on Day 24: I’m documenting this journey publicly. Daily blog posts. YouTube videos. Social media posts across platforms.

But I’m not really sharing my GOALS publicly. I’m sharing my HABITS.

There’s a difference.

What I Share vs. What I Keep

What you see (public):

  • I did these 7 things today
  • Here’s the weight (282.2 lbs, 7.3 lbs down)
  • Here’s the data (23 days perfect, 97 chapters revised)
  • Here’s what I’m learning (compound interest, discomfort, risk)

What I keep closer (inner circle):

  • Specific target: 240 lbs by Day 280
  • Novel published via KDP this year
  • Speaking engagements booked
  • 1,000 people impacted
  • Memoir written

My wife and son know the full goals. I’m working through them with the tools I’m using. But the broader audience? They get the process, not the specific targets.

Why?

Because I’m focused on showing people the HOW (build daily habits) not selling them the WHAT (hit my specific numbers).

I’m doing this and you can do it too – not “look at me achieve my goals.”

The Community I Want vs. The Community I Have

Here’s the honest truth on Day 24: I don’t really have a community yet.

Minimal engagement. A handful of views. My first YouTube video posted yesterday – imperfect, incomplete, but out there.

I’m building the foundation. Intentionally. As I find people to join the journey.

But here’s what I realized reading Hyatt’s chapter: I want to be a part of helping each other achieve goals, not just me shouting into the night.

I don’t want followers. I want a tribe.

I don’t want an audience that watches. I want achievers who participate.

I don’t want people to comment “great job!” and move on. I want people to say “here’s MY Day 24” and we encourage each other forward.

How You Build That

For now, I think I have to go looking for it.

Comment on other people’s content. Engage genuinely with creators doing similar work. Do the traditional social media building that I’ve been avoiding.

Keep working my 7 habits. Keep documenting the journey. Keep showing what’s possible through living proof instead of motivational theory.

And in the videos I make and the content I write, I want to focus on what I’m doing and WHY I’m finding importance in it.

Not “hey, look at me.”

“I’m doing this, and you can do it too.”

The Achiever Circle I Need

My wife and son are in my inner circle. They know the full goals. They’re watching this unfold in real-time.

But I need to bring in other achievers. Other goal-setters who can refine these targets with me. Who can ask the hard questions. Who can push back when I’m off-track.

Michael Hyatt is right: the journey IS better with friends.

I’m just building the foundation first. And when the tribe arrives – when the achievers find this content and say “I’m doing this too” – we’ll help each other get there.

Not just me shouting. Us building together.

Day 24 Reality

Four inches of snow. Below-zero wind chill. Yoga instead of walking.

One YouTube video posted. OpusClip clips distributed. Social accounts rebranded.

Twenty-four consecutive perfect days. Still mostly building alone.

But the foundation is solid. And the tribe will come.

Day 24 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Reading (Your Best Year Ever – The Journey Is Better With Friends) ✅ Exercise (DDP Yoga due to snow/wind chill) ✅ Gratitude ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Creative hour

Twenty-four consecutive perfect days. Building the foundation. Waiting for the tribe.

The best time to start building? Now. The tribe arrives when they see the foundation is real.

See you tomorrow for Day 25.

Day 23: The Video I’ve Been Avoiding For Years (And Why It’s Finally Out There)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Twenty-three days into the 7-40 Challenge, and I did something I’ve been calling “too difficult” for years.

I filmed my first YouTube video. Posted it. Extracted clips with OpusClip. Distributed them to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.

It’s rough. It’s not my best work. The descriptions aren’t perfect. The tags aren’t optimized. I’m not even sure anybody will see it.

But it’s out there. Right here actually.

And that’s what matters.

The Friday Weigh-In

This morning I stepped on the scale: 282.2 pounds.

Day 1, I was 289.5. That’s 7.3 pounds down in 23 days.

I’m establishing Friday as my official weekly weigh-in day. Every Friday, I’ll report the number – up, down, or plateau. No spin. Just data.

7.3 pounds in 23 days. The system works.

But today isn’t about the weight. Today is about the thing I’ve been avoiding.

The Thing I’ve Been Avoiding

Social media.

Not just posting on social media – I’ve done that before. But actually BUILDING a presence. Filming videos. Putting myself on camera. Creating content that might inspire the 1,000 people I want to reach.

I’ve been calling it “too difficult” for years. I’ve said I don’t understand it. I’ve watched other people build audiences and thought “why can they figure it out so easily when I can’t?”

The truth? I’ve been protecting myself from vulnerability.

It’s easier to blog in obscurity than to film a video where people can see my face, hear my voice, and judge whether I’m authentic or full of it.

But here’s what I realized reading Michael Hyatt’s chapter on Risk this morning:

Publishing today is more important than perfect.

The Hook That Broke the Pattern

I asked myself: “Can you name one thing right now that you’ve always wanted to do that you’ve been avoiding?”

For me, it was this. The video. The social presence. The public documentation that goes beyond written words.

So I took the outline we’d built, hit record, and started talking as if I was speaking to a friend.

I didn’t script every word. I didn’t rehearse. I just went with the rough outline in my head and answered each section naturally.

Toastmaster training kicked in – I’m actually pretty good at speaking extemporaneously if I have an outline. I talked through:

  • The hook (name your avoided thing)
  • My story (47, stuck in “someday” mode for 20 years)
  • The 7-40 Challenge system
  • The data (7.3 lbs, 97 chapters, 23 perfect days)
  • The mission (1,000 people need living proof, not theory)
  • The call to action (start now, comment your avoided thing)

Seven minutes. One take. Done.

OpusClip Made It Easy

Then I did something I wasn’t planning to do today: I signed up for OpusClip.

The whole workflow I’d been overthinking? It was actually easy.

Upload the video. Let the AI identify viral moments. Download the clips. Post to Instagram and TikTok directly from the platform.

I’m on the starter plan right now – wanted to try it before committing to pro. But honestly? It worked exactly like it was supposed to.

Three platforms. Multiple clips. One creative hour.

Why It’s Not My Best Work (And Why I Posted Anyway)

I don’t have the appropriate hashtags. The titles aren’t SEO-optimized. The descriptions are bare-bones. All the “crap that normally goes with it” – I skipped most of it.

I’m not certain anybody will see it.

But here’s the thing: even with perfect optimization, nobody was going to see my first video anyway. I have no subscribers. No algorithm momentum. No existing audience.

The point of Day 23 wasn’t views. It was breaking the pattern.

I did the thing I’ve been calling “too difficult” for years. I filmed. I posted. I extracted. I distributed.

I proved to myself that I can be uncomfortable and survive.

Day 24’s video will be slightly better. Day 30 will be better still. By Day 100, I’ll have reps under my belt and know what works.

But none of that happens without Day 23.

The Best Time To Start

Michael Hyatt’s Risk chapter hit me hard this morning. He talks about how meaningful achievement requires stepping into discomfort. How comfort equals boredom.

I’ve been bored with my own avoidance for too long.

So today I chose action over perfection. I chose vulnerability over polish. I chose NOW over “when it’s ready.”

The video is out there. It’s imperfect. It’s uncomfortable.

And I’m happy it’s done.

Day 23 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Workout A ✅ Reading (Your Best Year Ever – Risk chapter) ✅ Friday Weigh-In: 282.2 lbs (7.3 lbs down) ✅ Walking ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour (First YouTube video filmed, posted, and distributed via OpusClip)

Twenty-three consecutive perfect days. The thing I’ve been avoiding for years? Done.

The best time to stop avoiding the thing you’ve been avoiding? Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 24.

Day 22: When Comfort Became the Enemy (And Why I’m Grateful For Discomfort)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

I’m reading “Your Best Year Ever” by Michael Hyatt, and today a quote hit me like a punch to the gut:

“When it comes to meaningful achievement, comfort = boredom.”

Let me be clear about something: I wasn’t bored with my life. I love my life. I love my family. I cherish the time I have with wife and my son.

But I was absolutely bored with how I was handling the hard things in my life.

And that’s a dangerous kind of boredom.

The Comfortable Pattern

For a long time, it was really easy to come home from work and sit down on the couch. Get ready for dinner. Have a glass of wine. Tell myself I deserved it and do my best to escape the day I just had.

Here’s the thing: I had nothing to escape. Sure, there were stressors like any other day filled with jobs and decisions and everything else. But I didn’t need to escape anything.

Yet I was using the wine to combat stress.

Wine in itself is not a bad thing. But when you drink it as much as a stress reliever as you do for enjoyment, it’s probably become an unhealthy thing.

And time goes by so quickly. You put on some weight. You find yourself doing the same things every day, not getting anywhere.

That’s when comfort becomes boredom.

The Red Pill

You know that scene in The Matrix, don’t you? Where Morpheus offers Neo a choice.

Take the blue pill and you go back to your life. You believe whatever it is you want to believe. Everything stays comfortable.

Take the red pill and you’ll see how deep the rabbit hole really goes.

For me, the 7-40 Challenge has been a lot like the red pill.

What I’m doing, I enjoy. But it is not necessarily comfortable. I am not bored. I am challenged. And I’m more hopeful than I have been in a long time.

The Discomfort I Chose

When I started this challenge on January 1, I told myself I was going to have a dry January. I want to make it very clear: I don’t use alcohol to excess. But the fact that I have used it to relieve stress is something I didn’t particularly care for.

As I started this journey, I wanted the challenge itself to be the stress relief. Doing things that excite me. Treating my body well. Really spending time with my family where I’m completely present and plugged in.

It’s human nature to take the easiest path. When confronted with a hard path or an easy path, it is really, really hard to take the red pill.

But meaningful achievement? That’s on the other side of discomfort.

What’s Actually Hard

The individual tasks aren’t hard.

Reading my Bible is the first thing I do every morning. It’s not difficult. I want to do it.

Tracking my calories, my water, exercising every day – I want to do them. But I would naturally gravitate towards not doing them because there are so many other pressing things that need to be done.

Reading every day is not something that comes naturally to me. I love getting new information. I love new ideas. But setting aside the time to listen instead of daydreaming or whatever else it is I do has been very different.

Gratitude is where I want the natural position of my heart to be. I want this habit to be an outflow of how I truly feel on the inside. The truth is, I feel so entirely blessed and thankful for the life I have – even though I’m not completely where I want to be.

And I’ll admit: the creative hour paired with social media learning and all that comes with it is very challenging. I’m much more of a private person than I thought I was.

But I also know you can’t inspire others and hide your light under a basket.

The hardest part isn’t any single task. The hardest part is doing ALL of these tasks EVERY day.

The Compound Interest of Discomfort

I wrote earlier this month about compound interest – how when we do things over and over, we get surprised at how far and how fast we can go.

That has been the result I’ve seen this month.

I’ve accomplished things this month I didn’t know I could do. And the month is only two-thirds over.

What could I do if I could keep up this kind of output this year?

It boggles the mind.

Why I Left Comfort Behind

I wasn’t bored with my life. But I realized something critical:

If I’m going to take care of other people and inspire other people and be everything God intended me to be, I need to take care of myself.

I need to challenge myself to excellence.

I need to take better care of my body, my mind, and my spirit.

I need to be the transformation I want to see for others.

And I can’t do that sitting on the couch drinking wine.

Day 22 Reality

Today I rebranded all my social media accounts around the 7-40 Challenge. YouTube. Instagram. X (Twitter). TikTok.

It’s uncomfortable putting myself out there. It’s vulnerable documenting this publicly.

But comfort = boredom. And I’m done being bored with how I handle the hard things.

Michael Hyatt was right. Meaningful achievement lives on the other side of discomfort.

Day 22 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Dirt work (replacing walking – garden beds getting built) ✅ Reading (Your Best Year Ever audiobook) ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour (Social media rebrand – all accounts updated) ✅ DDP Yoga Fat Burner 2.0

Twenty-two consecutive perfect days. The discomfort is worth it.

The best time to leave comfort behind? Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 23.

Day 21: The Dream That Won’t Let Me Sleep (And Why I’m Grateful For It)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Twenty-one days into the 7-40 Challenge, and today I did something I haven’t done in a long time: I stopped moving long enough to ask myself where I’m actually going.

Not physically. I know where I’m going physically – I’ve got 20 cubic yards of dirt to move into garden beds today. My back will remind me of that tomorrow.

I mean really going. By Day 280. By the time this challenge ends somewhere between mid-November and early December.

Here’s what I figured out.

The Weight of the Number

This morning I weighed 283.5 pounds.

On Day 1, I was 289.5. That’s 6 pounds down in 21 days – about 0.29 pounds per day.

Here’s the math: If I keep this pace through all 280 challenge days, I’ll lose approximately 80 pounds. That puts me at roughly 209 pounds.

My goal is 240.

Translation: I’m crushing this at nearly double the pace I need.

At my current rate, I could screw up a little bit – have some plateau weeks, enjoy a few celebration meals, take some recovery time – and still hit my 240-pound goal with room to spare.

My body and muscle structure don’t lend themselves to weighing 210 pounds anyway. I’m built bigger. 240 is where I want to be – lean, strong, and sustainable.

The data tells me I’m on track. More than on track. I’m building margin into the system.

But here’s the thing: the number on the scale isn’t the real goal. The real goal is vitals where they should be. Energy that doesn’t quit. Eating yummy food while maintaining my weight. A body that works the way God designed it to work.

The number is just data. The transformation is what matters.

Who I’m Actually Trying to Reach

I spent 30 minutes this morning getting crystal clear on something I’ve been fuzzy about: Who is this for?

Not everyone. That’s too broad.

This is for people who have goals but feel beat down by life. People who’ve tried to get their head wrapped around what they need to do but just need a little extra motivation. A community of like-minded people to help them do the same thing.

I have a feeling there are thousands – if not tens or hundreds of thousands – of people out there who are comfortably miserable.

Stuck by choice. Not by circumstances. By choice.

Waiting for enough inspiration or motivation to hit them so they’ll finally do something different.

That’s who I’m talking to.

The Transformation I Want You to Experience

Here’s the thing: my 7-40 Challenge is based on my specific needs.

Weight loss. Novel completion. Social media presence. Daily reading. Creative output.

But you? You might need something completely different.

Maybe you need to get your finances in order. Maybe you need to repair relationships. Maybe you need a career transition or mental health stability or spiritual growth.

The core principle is this: Pick foundational habits to practice every day that lead you to the life you want.

I want you to NAME what transformation you need. Then EXPERIENCE it by building the habits that get you there.

Watch yourself move along the continuum from “have not” to “have.”

That’s the transformation I’m trying to inspire.

What Makes This Different

I’ve theorized far too long in my life. It’s gotten me nowhere.

I would rather build an audience slowly, build a tribe slowly, build something strong – than be flashy and bring people in on personality alone.

Why? Because I’m a good dude and a nice guy, but I am NOT an on-call entertainer keeping everybody buzzing all the time. That’s just not who I am.

I’m a witness by experience, not by theory.

Every day I practice the things I’ve said will lead me where I need to go. And through my revision times – my reflection times – I ask myself the hard questions:

  • Is this actually what I want to be doing?
  • Is this who I’m intended to be?
  • Have I missed something important?

The beauty of the 40-day cycle versus trying to do something for 6 months or a year? We may get just a few blocks from home and realize we’re driving the wrong way.

Do I need to wait till I get to the next town before I turn around? No. I just make the adjustment and go where I need to go.

The Dream I Can’t Forget

I had a dream a while back.

I was floating on my stomach down a rushing river. I don’t know how I was breathing – obviously this was a dream – but I realized I needed to lift my head up and find out where I was.

It was really, really hard to drag my face up out of the water. I remember giving all kinds of effort. Finally pulling my head up just to check where I was and check my surroundings.

Then it was like my face wanted to be pushed back into the water.

The effort to pull up and realize my surroundings was the hard part.

But I knew in the dream that I had to do it. And I had to do it often. Because I knew that I would end up somewhere unknown if I didn’t wake up and look around.

I feel the same way about my life.

We let things rush at us so fast. We let things overwhelm us. We let life just lead us along.

If we’re not careful:

  • We don’t lift our head up long enough
  • We don’t see where we are
  • We don’t see that we’ve been dragged by the tide
  • We’ve gone far, far further than we intended to go

So it’s my intention to use that dream as a warning. To be present and aware of where I’m headed. To not let the tide of life sweep over me.

And to inspire other people to do the very same thing.

The Urgency at 47

Maybe it’s just me getting older and being more observant because I see time passing.

But I see how precious things are. I see how valuable time really is. How it needs to be captured and squeezed so we get every ounce out of it that we can.

I don’t want to wake up one day and have regretted.

The only regrets I want to consider are the ones that are going to lead me to making things right and doing things better.

So I will think of those future regrets as a warning, and I will make better choices now.

Day 21 Vision

By Day 280, here’s where I’m headed:

  • 240 pounds, vitals where they should be, eating sustainably
  • 20-30 books read
  • YA novel published, working on next novel
  • Memoir written
  • Booking speaking engagements based on this year’s work
  • Social media channels with actual community – not just followers, but people talking to each other and helping each other

But more than that?

1,000 people look at my 280-day journey and say “If he can do it, I can do it. The best time to start is now.”

Then they name their transformation. Build their habits. Move from “have not” to “have.”

And the world gets 1,000+ people who stopped being comfortably miserable and started being intentionally alive.

That’s the vision.

Day 21 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Workout B ✅ Dirt work (wheelbarrow + 20 cubic yards = brutal) ✅ Reading (Your Best Year Ever audiobook) ✅ Vision clarity (30 minutes) ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude

Twenty-one consecutive perfect days. The vision is clear. The work continues.

The best time to lift your head up and check where you’re going? Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 22