Tag: habits

When Good Ideas Become Relics: Day 26 and the Hard Work of Letting Go

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

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.

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 20: Why DDP Yoga (And Why This Time Is Different)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Twenty days into the 7-40 Challenge, and I’m realizing something: I’ve been doing DDP Yoga on and off for years. But I’ve never done it like this.

Let me explain.

Why DDP Yoga?

When I started looking for a yoga program that fit my life, I had a few non-negotiables.

First, I needed something approachable. Yoga is incredibly good for your health, but I’m a 47-year-old married man. I don’t need to do yoga with young women in spandex. I need to hang out with a guy in his 60s in gym shorts, focusing on nothing but the physical benefits. That’s exactly what DDP Yoga gave me.

Second, I remembered Diamond Dallas Page from his WCW wrestling days in the ’90s. I was a bit of a fan back then. But what really caught my attention was when he went on Shark Tank to get funding for his business.

That’s where I saw Arthur’s story.

The Arthur Story That Changed Everything

Arthur was a veteran who used to jump out of airplanes. He did a lot of damage to his body through his service to the country. By the time DDP met him, Arthur was using arm canes just to move around. He was much larger than was healthy. Doctors didn’t know if he’d ever walk normally again.

But on Shark Tank, Arthur stood next to DDP—a fit, trim man full of vitality. There was a video of him running. Full speed.

It’s hard to argue with those results.

Why That Story Mattered to Me

Around the time I picked up the DDP Yoga app in 2019—after spending the back half of 2018 healing up from surgery—I felt extremely broken.

During my cancer surgery and recovery, I lost 50 pounds. Then I had all the lymph nodes surgically removed from my abdomen—a massive abdominal surgery with a huge midline scar running down my stomach.

I didn’t know if I’d regain my core strength. I didn’t know if I’d ever feel normal again.

Through DDP Yoga, I’ve been able to regain a lot of my core strength and flexibility. And I did it in a way that’s uplifting and positive—because that’s who DDP is. The program is low-impact. It doesn’t overtax my muscles, but it definitely works them out. I get my heart rate up without hurting myself.

There are different workout programs on the app for people at every fitness level. I’ve gotten much more flexible and stronger over time.

But here’s the confession: I’ve never actually finished a full 13-week cycle.

Why This Time Is Different

I made it through one 13-week cycle once, but I didn’t do all the prescribed workouts. I’d push things off. Rearrange the schedule. Skip one here and there. Just mess around.

This time, I have my workout plan already established. I know exactly what days I’m doing things on. I look at my phone, see what’s up for that day, and that’s the workout I do.

Part of the beauty of DDP’s app is you can set the workout schedule to be what you want it to be on the days you want. It was very easy to take the 3-4 yoga sessions I wanted per week and arrange them around my lifting days.

So I’m lifting, doing yoga, and walking—without overburdening myself on any specific day. It’s balanced. It’s sustainable.

But here’s the real difference:

I’ve decided to be completely transparent with myself and the world.

I need transformation. I do not want to wait any longer to step into this.

The best time to start is now. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Arthur went from arm canes to running. I went from post-cancer brokenness to regaining my core strength. But both of us had to actually show up and do the work.

Day 20. DDP Yoga Energy 2.0 is up next. I’m not skipping it. I’m not rearranging it. I’m doing it.

Because this time, I’m not just trying to finish a cycle. I’m building a foundation that lasts 280 days—and beyond.

Day 20 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise (Walking) ✅ Reading ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour ✅ DDP Yoga Energy 2.0

Twenty consecutive perfect days. No skipping. No rearranging. Just showing up.

The best time to start is now.

See you tomorrow for Day 21.