Author: David Willis

Embarking on the 7-40 Challenge: Welcome to 2026

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Hello, friends. Welcome to 2026!

It’s January 1st, and I’m thrilled to kick off Round One of the 7-40 Challenge. This year, I’ve decided to make 2026 the most purposeful year of my life. To do that, I’m using my 7-40 framework: seven core habits practiced in 40-day cycles to build sustainable transformation.

As Winston Churchill once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” This year isn’t about perfection. It’s about purposeful, consistent change that compounds over time.

Some of you followed my 7-40 posts in 2025. You’ll recognize many of the same foundational habits, but with fresh additions and a deeper commitment. Here’s what the seven habits look like for 2026.

My Seven Foundational Habits

1. Daily Bible Study and Prayer

I’ve signed up for a one-year Bible reading plan and started strong this morning. As it has been for years, this remains my core habit—everything else flows from it. Charles Spurgeon put it well: “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”

2. Exercise: One Hour Daily

During each 40-day sprint, I’ll exercise for at least one hour a day. I’ll keep moving during reflection weeks too. This isn’t a rigid regime—it’s purposeful. I’ll listen to my body, take occasional rest days when needed, and focus on what serves my goals. My mix: weightlifting, daily walking, and yoga. I’m following DDP Yoga (more on why I love it in a future post).

3. Daily Calorie Tracking

I love food—sometimes too much. To stay honest, I’ll track calories and macros every day. My aim isn’t just weight loss; it’s giving my body the balanced nutrition it needs to thrive.

4. Water Intake: 100 Ounces Daily

Water and I have a complicated relationship. Some days I’m great at it; others, not so much. But it’s essential. My goal: at least 100 ounces daily—roughly three 32-ounce bottles or twelve 8-ounce glasses.

5. Reading: 30 Minutes Daily

I’ll read or listen to books for at least 30 minutes each day. In 2025, this habit brought fresh ideas and new perspectives—even on books I’d read before. It was one of the most rewarding parts of the challenge.

6. Creative Projects: Daily Progress

This year I’m opening up more about my creative work.

  • I’ve finished the first draft of a novel and will revise it with the goal of pitching to agents or publishers—or self-publishing via Amazon KDP.
  • I’m starting a personal memoir to capture and share stories from my life.
  • I’ll continue posting here and on social channels about the 7-40 journey.

But here’s the real experiment: I’m using myself as the lab rat. No more theory—just real results, authentic experience, and personal testimony.

7. Gratitude: Weekly Practice

Each week I’ll pause to express deep gratitude for:

  • God, who loves and saved me
  • My wife, who has walked with me through 27 years of marriage
  • My son, now a remarkable young man
  • Dear friends, parents, and in-laws
  • My job and the wonderful people I work with

Throughout the year, I’ll also reflect on the moments that shaped me—times when God’s grace or others’ help carried me through. Gratitude changes everything, and I have so much to be thankful for.

My Big Audacious Goal for 2026

I want to positively impact at least 1,000 people.

I may never know all their names or meet them in person. That’s okay. My hope is to brighten days, spark hope, and show what’s possible.

If a 47-year-old guy who’s 50 pounds overweight, who has wasted time dreaming instead of doing, who has beaten cancer twice by God’s grace—if I can look in the mirror and commit to real change, to achieving long-held goals, to loving people more intentionally—then anyone can.

That’s the message I want to live out and share.

Join Me

The 7-40 Challenge runs all year: seven 40-day habit cycles, woven with reflection weeks, celebrations, and (hopefully) a growing community supporting one another.

If this resonates, come along for the ride. Share your own habits in the comments, follow along on social, or simply cheer from the sidelines—every bit helps.

See you tomorrow for Day 2. Let’s make 2026 count.

Reevaluating the 7-40 Challenge: Habits, Identity, and Becoming Who I’m Meant to Be

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Hey there, friends! Welcome back to the 7-40 Challenge. It’s a bright, shiny day out there, and honestly, I’m to be out in it and writing these words. If you’ve been following along on my blog, you know I’ve been all in on this journey of building seven daily habits over 40-day cycles. It’s my way of zeroing in on consistency, one small step at a time, to spark real transformation in my life.

Lately, though, I’ve been taking a hard look at the goals laid out in front of me—tweaking, rethinking, and reworking what they look like moving forward. One habit I’ve been crushing is my daily 30 minutes of reading. Over the past three months, I’ve powered through nine full books and dipped into several others. It’s been incredible, and I’m fired up to keep that momentum going. But as I am in the midst of my third round of the challenge, something’s been nagging at me: Are these habits aligning with what I want to achieve? Or the person I want to become?

This hit home while I was diving into Atomic Habits by James Clear—the book I’m currently wresting with. He drops this gem: “The process of building habits is the process of becoming yourself.” At first, I paused and thought, Wait, aren’t I already me? But after mulling it over, it clicked. We’re not static; we’re works in progress. These programs we set up aren’t just about checking boxes or knocking out tasks. They’re about evolving into a different—hopefully better—version of ourselves. It’s not about the habits for habits’ sake; it’s about the identity they shape.

That realization made me reflect on how, in this latest cycle, I’ve caught myself going through the motions on a few of these habits. My original intention was to dial in harder, to optimize and elevate them. But after those first few chapters of Atomic Habits, I saw the gap: I need to crystal-clear define who I want to become. Only then can my daily actions truly propel me in that direction.

And then Annie Dillard landed the knockout punch with one sentence that’s been living rent-free in my head:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

That’s it. No fluff, no loopholes. The 30 minutes I give to reading, the way I show up (or don’t) for my workouts, the quiet moments I protect for prayer and reflection—these aren’t just line items on a habit tracker. They’re the raw material of my life. If I’m half-hearted today, I’m half-hearted forever. If I’m intentional today, that intention compounds into the person I’ll look back on years from now.

So yeah, I’m hitting pause. Not quitting—just stepping back for a few days to get brutally honest about the “who.” Who am I becoming with every sunrise? Are these seven habits still the truest expression of that person, or do I need to adjust some of them? None of them are bad (they’re actually really good), but good can be the enemy of great when it’s not aligned.

I’ll be doing some deep thinking, a lot of head-scratching, probably more than a little praying, and asking the big questions:

• What kind of man do I want standing here in five years?

• What daily practices will make that version of me inevitable?

Thanks for riding shotgun on this reflective detour. I’ll be back tomorrow with whatever clarity (or beautiful mess) comes out of this reset. Until then—let’s keep choosing our days on purpose. Because as Annie reminded me, that’s exactly how we choose our lives.

See you on the other side.

Day 14 of the 7-40 Challenge: When the Plan Isn’t Worming

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

It’s day 14 of round three, and I’m going to keep it real with you: I’m struggling.

The first two rounds were clean. I had a daily walking target that basically guaranteed my 60 minutes of movement. The rest of the seven goals—reading, writing , the whole stack—slotted in without much friction. Life was loud, but the rhythm was there.

This round? Not so much.

I tried swapping walks for other workouts, stacking errands, protecting pockets of deep work. Instead of flow, I got friction. Every day feels like I’m forcing square pegs into round holes. The goals haven’t changed in importance; but finding where they best fit has been a challenge.

So here I am, mid-challenge, doing the thing I swore I wouldn’t do again: reevaluating on the fly.

As Winston Churchill put it during World War II, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Mine aren’t cutting it.

Or, to borrow from Mike Tyson—everyone’s favorite philosopher of adaptability—“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Consider my mouth thoroughly punched.

I’m not quitting. The 7-40 isn’t about perfection; it’s about persistence. But blindly charging ahead with a framework that needs adjustment is not going to work.

The seven goals still matter. Moving forward matters. Transformation into more matters.

I don’t have the new blueprint yet. Give me 24 hours. By tomorrow I’ll either have a smarter version of the stack or I’ll burn it down and build something that actually fits.

Either way, I’ll detail it here to keep myself accountable.

See you on day 15.

Day 12 of the 7-40 Challenge: When Your Apple Watch Begs for Mercy

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Hello, friends! Welcome to Day 12 of the 7-40 Challenge—where the garden-building saga continues, and my family and I are officially running on fumes.

Today was next-level. I did something I’m not sure I’ve ever done before: my Apple Watch clocked over 150 workout minutes. That’s right—150+ minutes of pure, real-life hustle. No gym, no long walks or yoga, just me, a mountain of wood, and sheer determination.

I hauled several thousand pounds of timber across the yard. By the end, my arms were noodles, my back was whispering sweet nothings of revenge, and my watch was basically screaming, “Are you trying to kill me?!”

But here’s the thing: it was worth it.

This wasn’t some scripted fitness app routine. This was a real-life workout—the kind that builds more than muscle. It builds grit. It builds progress. It builds a garden (and a story) we’ll look back on and say, “Yeah, we did that.”

The Short & Sweet Message for Tonight:

Keep working on the goals.

Do hard things. Do them well.

Even when you’re exhausted. Even when the wood feels heavier than your will to live.

Because the best workouts?

They don’t always happen in a gym.

Sometimes they happen in the dirt, under the sun, with family beside you and a dream in front of you.

Tomorrow, we rest.

But tonight?

We celebrate the burn.

See you on Day 13.

(If I can still move.)

Day 11 of the 7–40 Challenge: Post Holes, Progress, and a Whole Lot of Purpose

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Hello, friends! David here, checking in on Day 11 of the 7–40 Challenge—and man, what a day it’s been. If you’re new around here, welcome aboard. If you’ve been riding shotgun since Day 1, thanks for sticking with me. Either way, grab a seat (or a shovel), because today was real.

The Yard Work That Counted as a Workout

We’ve been knee-deep in projects at our new home, and today’s mission? Building a garden. Translation: post hole digging. A LOT of post hole digging.

Many hands make light work.

— John Heywood, 1546

And let me tell you—my hands did the work today. No gym, no timer, just me, a post hole digger, and a stubborn patch of earth that didn’t want to cooperate. But here’s the beautiful part: exercise wasn’t a checkbox—it was the job.

All those early mornings, all the sweat from the last two rounds of this challenge? They showed up today. My body needed to perform, and it did. Sore? Yup. Tired? Absolutely.

But every hole is dug. The posts are in. And I’m still standing.

The best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

— Theodore Roosevelt, 1903

Mission. Accomplished.

The 7 Habits: Still in the Fight

I hit a wall last weekend—let’s not sugarcoat it. A couple of days slipped, goals got fuzzy, and momentum took a hit. But this week? I’ve rebounded. Not with fireworks or fanfare, but with quiet, stubborn consistency.

Here’s the lineup—7 habits, 40 days:

1. Bible study & prayer

2. 60 minutes of exercise (Check—thanks, yard work!)

3. Read for 30 minutes

4. Write daily (Hey, you’re reading it!)

5. Log all food & water

6. Practice gratitude

7. Build social media know-how (Still learning—bear with me!)

Am I crushing it with gusto? Eh, debatable.

But I’ve steadied the ship. I’m back on course. And that? That feels good.

Why This Matters (Especially in My Mid-40s)

Let’s be real: I’m in my mid-40s. There are things I thought I’d have nailed by now—discipline, balance, maybe even a decent TikTok strategy (still working on that one).

Life got busy. Important things pulled me in a hundred directions. Some parts of me got neglected.

This challenge? It’s not just about habits. It’s about reclaiming balance. It’s about being healthier, happier, and here—for my family, for the long haul.

It’s about transformation.

It’s about showing up.

It’s about digging post holes and digging deeper into who I want to be.

Your Turn

Wherever you are—whether you’re swinging a shovel, crushing a deadline, or just trying to get through Friday—you’re in the fight too.

It’s Friday, November 7th. The weekend’s knocking.

Be healthy. Be happy. Be here.

We’ll see you tomorrow for Day 12.

Onward,