Tag: Life

Day 42: Show Your Work

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Round 2, Day 2
Monday, February 16, 2026

Hello and welcome to Day 42 of the 7-40 Challenge.

I’m excited to be here today. I’m getting stuff done, having a pretty good day. I lifted weights today for the first time in three weeks — my hand is finally feeling better — and it felt great to be back under the bar.

The Key That Unlocks Achievement

I’ve been thinking about why this challenge is working. And I keep coming back to one word: accountability.

It’s really easy to say you want to get something done. And then not set a standard to live up to. And then wonder why you weren’t able to achieve it at the end.

It’s the difference between wishing and planning.

Accountability — actually having to document things, show your work, show how you got there — is making a real difference. Because if I look in the mirror and I don’t like what I see, I can own my results. I can trace back through the data and find exactly where things went right or wrong.

I know that if I watch what I eat every day, take in the right amount of water, and work out like I’m supposed to, it helps me burn calories. It helps me reshape my body. It helps me lose weight.

But if I don’t track these things? If I don’t talk about what I did, how I did it, where I’ve been and where I’m going? When I don’t reach where I want to be, I have absolutely no reason to be surprised.

Transparency is the key that unlocks the door of achievement. Because if you know what to do, and you’re not transparent enough to say whether you’ve done it or not, then who are you fooling but yourself?

A Lesson in Owning It

Let me give you a real example.

I had a job once where I had been entering data all morning. Hours of work. And about halfway through the day, I realized I had been entering everything in the wrong place — in our sample area instead of our actual area. People were depending on me to get the job done.

I had two choices. I could pass it off. Make excuses. Hope nobody noticed.

Or I could focus in, redo four hours of work, and get it right.

With a little focus, it only took about an hour and a half to fix. I finished on time. Met the deadline. It was one of the first times I had made a mistake like that and immediately pivoted to attacking the problem with a solution instead of an excuse.

That’s accountability. Not perfection — but ownership. Seeing the problem, admitting the problem, and fixing the problem.

The 7-40 Connection

That’s what this blog does for me. Every day I show up here and document what happened. What I did. What I didn’t do. Where I’m winning. Where I’m struggling.

And because of that transparency, I can’t hide from my own results. I can only improve them.

How about you? Are you showing your work? Or are you hoping nobody — including yourself — notices the gap between what you said you’d do and what you actually did?

Show your work. Own your results. The transparency is what makes the transformation real.

Day 42 Habit Tracker

  • ✅ Bible Study and Prayer
  • ✅ Exercise (Warrior Shredding Workout A + Walk)
  • ✅ Water 100 oz
  • ✅ Calorie Tracking
  • ✅ Gratitude Practice
  • ✅ Reading (30 minutes)
  • ✅ Creative Hour

Day 42 of 280. Show your work.

Day 41: Gratitude Sunday — My Church

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Round 2, Day 1 Sunday, February 15, 2026

Welcome to Gratitude Sunday.

Today we went to service as a family, and the pastor preached a message about mental health. One of the things he said was that you can be a Christian and still struggle with depression or anxiety — not because you’re not trying to follow God or not trying to be close to Him, but because your life is out of balance.

That message was relevant to me.

Recently, my life was out of balance. I wasn’t getting enough sleep. I wasn’t taking adequate care of myself in some ways. And so today was confirmation that the steps I’ve been taking — these seven habits, this daily discipline — are the right ones. Getting things back in order matters.

But more than the message itself, I’m grateful for the place where I heard it.

I’m grateful to attend a church that meets me where I am. My faith in God and my belief in Jesus are strong. Being able to go to a place that builds that faith and supports that belief is a gift I don’t take for granted.

Tonight’s post is short, but it’s sincere.

I’m thankful for my church. Thankful that my wife, my son, and I attend as a family. Thankful that he’s involved in the youth group. Thankful that they love Jesus and teach God’s word.

Sometimes gratitude doesn’t need a lot of words. It just needs to be said.

See you tomorrow for Day 42.

Day 41 of 280. Round 2 has begun.

Day 41: The Linchpin Question

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Round 2, Day 1 Sunday, February 15, 2026

Good morning and welcome to Day 1 of Round 2 of the 7-40 Challenge. It’s a chilly morning in Oklahoma, and I’m out on the road getting my walk in early. Getting back to the challenge. Getting back to work.

Round 1 gave me a lot of forward momentum, and I have no intention of slowing down.

What Is a Linchpin?

I’ve been reading Linchpin by Seth Godin, and it’s challenging my thinking in ways I didn’t expect.

First, the literal definition. A linchpin is a pin passed through the end of an axle to keep a wheel in position. Without it, the wheel comes off and everything falls apart. I actually have a linchpin holding the gate of my trailer up right now. If it weren’t there, the gate would fall down and damage something. Small piece. Critical function.

Seth takes that idea and applies it to people. A linchpin, in his framework, is someone indispensable. Someone who provides value, leadership, and creative thinking without being told what to do. They take risks that pay off because they’ve done the work to be excellent at what they do. They’re rarely caught off guard. They’re often honored. And when it comes down to it, they’re extremely hard to replace.

The Air Gets Thinner

Here’s what hit me. Seth says that people who show up at a job just to be present — that’s easy. People who show up and follow orders — also easy. But people who innovate and create? The air gets a lot thinner up there. There aren’t as many people willing to do that.

From what I’ve seen in my own life, I agree.

It is so easy to go in, get depressed, collect the paycheck, and let the cycle take over. Then one day you lift your head up out of the water and realize you don’t know where you are. You’ve been floating for too long. The whole terrain has changed.

Why This Matters for Round 2

This book is challenging my thinking about the excellence I pour into every day. My need to attack these goals and these habits I’m forming. Because we’ve only got so long in this life. We only have so much time to make a difference. So much time to love those around us. So much time to leave a legacy. So much time to do what matters.

What matters to me? My relationship with God. My family. My friends. Caring for the world around me.

To do that well, I need to become a linchpin. More indispensable. More intentional. More excellent.

And because of that, I practice these habits daily. I put my accountability right here on the blog for you to see.

The Seven Habits for Round 2

  1. Bible Study and Prayer
  2. Exercise (1 hour daily)
  3. Water (100 oz daily)
  4. Calorie Tracking
  5. Gratitude Practice
  6. Reading (30 minutes daily)
  7. Creative Hour

Same seven. Deeper roots. Higher standards.

The Question

How about you? Are you working to be indispensable? Working to give your best and be the best you can be — not because it’s demanded of you, but because you have the opportunity to do so? To make a difference?

I’m going to get through Day 41. We’ll see you tomorrow for Day 42.

Day 41 of 280. Round 2 has begun.

The Factory vs. The Linchpin: Assessment Week Day 1

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Assessment Week – Day 1
Tuesday, February 10, 2026

I started reading Linchpin by Seth Godin today. Like many good books, it says more to me on the second read than the first.

The Factory

Godin talks about how the Industrial Revolution created what he calls “the factory”—the 9-to-5 job where somebody tells you what to do, you get paid to do what you’re told, you go home. You’ve been a part of the system, somebody else owns the means of production.

From standardized musket parts to Henry Ford’s assembly line, the factory seduced us into giving up what we were meant to do just to be part of the prescribed system.

The Quote That Hit Me

“People want to be told what to do because they’re afraid—even petrified—of figuring it out for themselves.”

That made me think: How many times have I neglected taking a more entrepreneurial path because I was afraid?

I’ve known for years there are projects I wanted to work on—the book I wrote and revised, the new book I’m writing, the speaking business I’ll start this year. But I’ve also spent way too much time just following instructions at work versus solving actual problems.

Being a linchpin means you know your job so well that you’re pushing the edges. You’re finding out what really needs to be done versus what the system says you need to do.

The Fake Version vs. The Real Thing

I remember a sermon where the pastor told someone who bragged about being good at Guitar Hero: “If you put as much time in on an actual guitar as you put in on the video game, you could be an actual guitar hero.”

We’re seduced by the easy, prescribed path. But I think because it’s difficult, it’s the very reason we need to do it.

What Round 1 Proved

Round 1 wasn’t the fake version. Forty consecutive days of real creative work—novel revised, blog posts written, 30,000+ people reached with Bible images. That’s not Guitar Hero. That’s the real guitar.

The Round 2 Danger

Here’s what I’m realizing as I enter Round 2: I need to lean even more into excellence and resist the urge to coast.

As momentum builds, it’s easy to phone things in. But the creative sessions, the reading, the daily habits—they’re leading me to become indispensable. Not just a factory worker following instructions, but someone figuring things out.

The Obligation

I have an obligation to myself, my family, and my Maker who gave me talents to make the most out of what I’ve been given.

I enjoy my day job. I enjoy data management. But that’s not all of who I am.

So I’m continuing in my side hustle tasks AND leaning into my day job to become as indispensable as I can make myself in both areas.

General Douglas MacArthur said, “Security is one’s ability to produce.” Being able to produce and being indispensable is about the only job security I can think of.

Assessment Week: Choosing Self-Direction

That’s why I’m working through Assessment Week—to figure out what Round 2 needs to look like.

I want to tell myself what to do with my creativity, my ability to produce. I can choose to be told what to do, or I can become what Seth Godin calls a linchpin—indispensable.

That’s who we should aspire to be. But we have to figure out how. And we have to do the hard work of getting it done.

Assessment Week – Day 1: Complete

Round 2 starts February 17. Time to figure out what it looks like to become indispensable—in every area of life.

See you tomorrow for Assessment Week Day 2.

Day 40: Round 1 Complete – Excited, Exhausted, and Ready for What’s Next

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Day 40 of the 7-40 Challenge
Monday, February 9, 2026

Hello and welcome to Day 40 of the 7-40 Challenge.

Here we are. At the end of Round 1.

And I am both excited and exhausted.

Why I’m Excited

I’m excited because every single day of this round, I have executed on the seven daily habits I set out to accomplish:

  • Bible study
  • An hour of exercise
  • Calorie tracking
  • 100 ounces of water daily
  • Daily gratitude
  • Reading for 30 minutes a day
  • An hour of daily creative time (blogging, writing, revising, social media content)

I’ve been able to do all of this for 40 days in a row—despite the fact that I hurt my hand, have been extremely busy at work, and had a variety of other things come up trying to interrupt progress.

I’m excited because I’ve lost 12 pounds. I’ve been able to revise my novel. I’ve started getting feedback from my first round of readers (my family). I have been actively blogging—this is my 40th blog post in a row.

I’ve also been posting daily on Instagram and TikTok on a handle called BiblePictures365, where I’m creating visual images from the different chapters I’m reading. Over 100 posts. Over 30,000 views.

There’s a lot to be excited about. I’ve gotten a lot done. I’m laying the foundation for what’s probably going to be my most productive year ever.

And that’s how I’m still moving forward.

Why I’m Exhausted

Now, why am I tired?

Go back and read the section above. Then pick back up here.

Of course, I’m kidding. But that level of doing does require a lot of mental energy and a lot of time. And I am absolutely knackered as I write this.

But here’s the thing: This exhaustion is real, and it’s also a byproduct of doing something that is worthy.

If it were easy, I wouldn’t be tired. But it also wouldn’t be worth doing.

What I Learned About Myself

A few things I’ve learned over this last month:

I am far more capable than I give myself credit for sometimes.

My shortfall is not a lack of ability. It’s a lack of structure. And I’ve proven to myself that with these seven daily habits I need to tackle, I am able to provide myself the structure to accomplish the greater things I set out to do.

I am a great example of how the path of least resistance is the attractive one, but not always the beneficial one.

I’ve noticed there are certain days and times I get to where I want to sink into old habits. Thursday evenings with a pizza and a glass of wine. Saturdays to eat out. There are plenty of opportunities to crash my goals if I’m not careful.

And that’s why these seven daily habits are so important. Because I know that either I take the path of least resistance, or I take the path of accomplishment. Those two paths don’t usually coincide with each other.

Here’s what I’ve realized: Our brains’ primary job is to conserve energy, which is why we have habit routines to start with.

I’m forcing my brain to go down a different path and choose a different route, which short-circuits things for a little while and makes things difficult and harder to do.

That’s normal. That’s expected. That’s the price of change.

Thankfully, this month, though I’ve eaten a few things I wanted to, I’ve stayed within my calories. I’ve stayed within my goals—as evidenced by my progress.

If I Can Do This, You Can Too

Here’s what I want you to hear: If this overweight 47-year-old man can decide to change things, you can too.

I’m not special. I’m not superhuman. I’m just a guy who decided 40 days ago that 2026 was going to be different.

And it has been.

What Happens Next

Going forward, this next week I am going to take a moment. I’m going to start planning for the next round, which actually begins next Monday, February 17.

And I am going to get in a little extra rest.

I will still practice some of the habits. I may not blog every day. Then again, I may. You never know. I may just keep right on going.

This is Assessment Week (February 10-16). Time to:

  • Review my yearly goals
  • Make sure I’m not short-circuiting anything I said I wanted to do for any of my new bright ideas
  • Rest and recharge
  • Build momentum for Round 2

I have some very cool details to share at the beginning of Round 2 about progress on other projects I haven’t yet mentioned. But in the meantime, I need to evaluate, rest, and refine.

Your Turn

How about you? What habits are you practicing? Where have you seen marked improvement when you apply yourself to them?

I would love to hear your story to go right along with mine. The successes you’ve had so we can celebrate them together.

And if you’re ready to join me for Round 2 starting February 17, I’d love to have you along for the journey.

Round 1: COMPLETE ✓

Forty days. Seven habits. Perfect execution.

Total Progress:

  • 40 consecutive days of all seven habits
  • 12.4 pounds lost
  • Novel revised (97 chapters)
  • 40 blog posts published
  • 100+ Bible images posted (30,000+ views)
  • Social media system operational
  • Creative breakthrough (The Light Bearer outlined)

Assessment Week begins tomorrow.

See you next week for Round 2.