Tag: Life

Gratitude Sunday: The Teacher Who Built the Bridge

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

It’s Gratitude Sunday, and I’m thankful for a woman who changed my life – though I didn’t realize how much until my wedding anniversary last week.

My wife reminded me of something I’d forgotten: things in my life that led me to where I am today that I didn’t identify until she pointed them out.

How Singing Led Me Down a Path

I used to be a singer. It was the thing I wanted to do most in this world.

I discovered my love for singing in high school – choir and show choir (yes, I was in show choir). For the first time in my life, I’d found something I truly enjoyed. Something that came somewhat naturally. I had a decent voice – as Danny Kaye said in White Christmas, I did fairly well in living rooms.

When I started applying myself, things changed fast.

Sophomore year: Made All-District Honor Choir. Tried out for All-State. Didn’t make it. I was devastated.

Junior year: My music teacher gave me an opportunity to attend a choir clinic before school started – learning the audition music for All-State Choir. I wanted to go desperately. But I didn’t have the money.

She let me mow her yard. Paid me. I did other work. I earned my way to that camp.

That was the first time I’d done anything like that – putting my own physical work into my success. Through that hard work, I made All-District again. I made All-State. That summer, I attended the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.

Senior year: District choir. All-State Choir again. Arts Institute again. And I made a National choir.

Freshman year of college: Full music scholarship to sing bass in my hometown choir.

I did that for a year, then decided I’d outgrown my hometown. Even though the university was good and the people were kind, I needed to get away. So I moved to Edmond, Oklahoma. Got a full scholarship to sing there too.

Why This Matters

My love for singing led me to work hard. Working hard led to opportunity. Opportunity led me to the place where I’d meet my wife.

Not long after we got married, my love for singing faded away. It was something I could do. Something I was definitely better at than in high school. But I looked at the singers around me and saw the dividing line – they were pursuing this as a career. And that, in truth, was no longer what I wanted.

I didn’t realize at the time that my singing had taken me from where I was to where I needed to be – to meet the woman who’s been my best friend on this earth and my wife for over 27 years now.

The Star of Today’s Gratitude Post

Mrs. Wilkins saw enough in me to work with me – helping me take the talent I had and make more of it.

My favorite story about her happened senior year. She called me into her office and, without much formality, said: “I have something to tell you. People don’t really like you that much.”

That seems counterintuitive for a gratitude post, but hear me out.

I said, “Why?”

She said, “Because you’re entirely too arrogant.”

I said, “I’m not arrogant. I’m confident.” (Which is, new flash, the code word for arrogant.)

She then asked if I would check my ego and begin treating others with respect, courtesy, and kindness.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but it was exactly the conversation I needed.

The Foundation She Helped Build

Mrs. Wilkins gave me some of the building blocks I needed to get to my wife. She also gave me character blocks – so that when I start feeling too full of myself, I remember her lesson: Yes, you may be talented. But there are others far more talented. How you treat people is the important part. Do this with humility and grace.

Mrs. Wilkins, if you’re reading these words, know that you’ve had a profound effect on my life – not only in aiding the butterfly effect that got me to where I am today, but also in calling me to aspire to develop the character I so desperately needed.

Thank you for the way you did this – not just for me, but for countless students who came into your choir room. You pointed us to excellence and helped us be the best we could be. And you did it with more grace and compassion than I know I deserved.

You will forever be one of my favorite teachers and a profound influence on my life.

Thank you.

Day 17: Creativity Isn’t a Lightning Strike (It’s Showing Up When You’re Tired)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Ninety-four chapters revised. Eleven to go.

I’m tired. My brain hurts from thinking about series setup, sequel planning, and whether this YA superhero story can actually be different from every other superhero story out there.

But I still protected my creative hour tonight. And that’s what I want to talk about.

Creativity Isn’t What You Think It Is

For years, I thought creativity was this mystical force that descended when inspiration struck. Lightning from the sky. The muse visiting. Magic.

Nope. That ain’t it.

Here’s what I’m learning on Day 17: Creativity is problem-solving. That’s it.

Sometimes it’s inventing brand new things where there’s a need. When I was drafting my novel originally, I had to create activities, scenes, dialogue from nothing. That was hard. That required imagination and invention.

Sometimes it’s taking something established and making it better. Now, in revision, I’m refining what’s already there. I’m solving the problem of “how do I set this up for a potential series without losing the current story?”

Both are creative. Both require showing up. Both feel completely different.

The Real Reason I Protect This Hour

I dedicate an hour to creativity every night for two reasons:

One: I want to inspire 1,000 people who are stuck. Sometimes you need to see somebody else in the trenches working through similar problems. You see them finding success, and you start to understand that you can have success too.

Two: I love the superhero genre, but it’s inundated with the same takes. I’m trying to write something fresh, accessible, clean – a YA story that doesn’t make parents nervous. That requires solving creative problems every single day.

These projects aren’t just about making stories. They’re about answering my larger questions: How do I make a contribution to the world? How do I make myself better?

Day 17 Reality Check

Today was harder than Day 16. I’m at that point in the book where critical thinking about series setup slows me down. Am I still in the honeymoon phase? Probably. Has this gotten brutally hard yet? Not really.

But I’m close to the finish line (11 chapters left), and that’s giving me energy. The ebb and flow of the creative process – some days flow, some days grind.

And I still showed up.

For Everyone Thinking “I’m Too Tired to Be Creative Today”

Here’s the truth: You’re always going to be too tired. You’re always going to have some excuse that comes up.

What’s one problem you need to solve right now? How can you think outside the box to solve it?

That’s creativity. Not waiting for lightning. Not waiting for inspiration.

Just showing up and solving problems.

Day 17 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise ✅ Reading (finished Made to Stick, started Your Best Year Ever) ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour (chapters 91-94, 89% complete on first revision)

Seventeen consecutive perfect days. Creativity isn’t magic. It’s showing up tired and solving problems anyway.

The best time to start is now. Not when you’re inspired. Not when you feel creative. Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 18.

Day 16: Truth vs. Projection (Why Transformation Fails Without Honest Data)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

When we’re trying to make transformative progress in our lives and we don’t live in truthful capture of what we do daily, we set ourselves up for frustration, failure, and disillusionment.

The transformation either takes longer than we expect or doesn’t happen at all. And we start believing—falsely—that transformation isn’t possible.

But here’s the truth: the issue isn’t that transformation doesn’t work. The issue is we’re projecting instead of capturing reality.

My Weight Struggle: A Case Study

Weight has been a struggle most of my adult life. It’s not that I haven’t known how to lose weight. The formula is simple: take in fewer calories than you burn. Basal metabolic rate plus exercise minus food intake equals weight change.

I’ve known this for decades.

But knowing and doing are different things.

I wasn’t doing the actual math. I wasn’t tracking my basal metabolic rate. I wasn’t calculating calories burned through workouts. I wasn’t logging every bite that went into my mouth.

I was projecting what I thought I was eating. “I’m being pretty good today.” “I didn’t eat that much.” “This is probably fine.”

And the scale didn’t move. Or it moved the wrong direction.

So I’d get frustrated. I’d feel like transformation was impossible. Like my body just didn’t work the same as other people’s.

The brutal truth? I was lying to myself.

What Changed on Day 1

When I started the 7-40 Challenge, I committed to tracking every calorie in MyFitnessPal. Every single one. No guessing. No “close enough.” No projection.

Capture. Truthful, unvarnished data.

By sticking to a calorie threshold every day and logging my daily exercise, I’m being much more honest in this challenge than I would have been otherwise. Because I know I have to watch what I put in my mouth much more rigorously.

If I don’t, I’m just lying to myself—and to anyone else I tell this story to.

The Truth Creates Clarity

I got into a conversation the other day about truth—in regards to current events and politics. My response to the person I was talking to: there’s the truth, and then there is what both sides want to call the truth.

Many times, neither side is actually reporting what actually happened—just their version.

Sherlock Holmes had it right: “It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.”

Give me the data. Give me the facts and patterns. Let the truth emerge from that—not from what I want the truth to be.

The Mirror Moment

So here’s the question I’m asking myself on Day 16—and the question I’m asking you:

Are you being truthful about the things that matter to you?

If you’re not seeing the change you want, are you projecting instead of capturing factually?

What will you do to change that today?

For me, it’s MyFitnessPal. It’s the scale on Friday mornings. It’s the daily blog post that holds me accountable. It’s the unvarnished truth that I’m 16 days in, 90 chapters revised, and the weight hasn’t moved as much as I’d like.

That’s not failure. That’s data. And data tells me what to adjust.

Day 16 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise (Workout B + Walking) ✅ Reading ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour

Sixteen consecutive perfect days. Projection eliminated. Truth captured.

The best time to start being honest with yourself? Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 17.

Day 14: Two Weeks In (The Power of Documentation)

~ David Willis ~ 5 Comments

Welcome to Day 14 of the 7-40 Challenge. It’s hard to believe two weeks have gone by with perfect execution every single day.

I’m excited about this for reasons I didn’t fully expect when I started.

The Accountability I Didn’t Admit I Needed

By forcing myself to blog daily about this challenge, I’m holding myself accountable to actually completing these tasks every day. And I hope I don’t offend anybody when I say this isn’t because I assume you’re all reading these words—although I’m grateful when you do.

Instead, I know I have to write them as part of my daily commitment to what I said I’d accomplish.

That’s accountability. And it was greatly missing from my daily life before this.

This format—public documentation in real time—creates a pressure I don’t have privately. There’s no hiding. No glossing over. No “I basically did it.” Either the seven habits are done, or they’re not.

And that accountability keeps me moving forward.

The Compound Interest Reality

If you get 1% better at something every day, you’ll be 37x better in one year. That’s not motivation speak. That’s mathematics.

Being that much better at something in just one year? That’s fantastic.

But here’s what terrifies me about that number: I could have been doing this for years.

All that potential growth. All those compounding days. Gone because I kept waiting for “someday.”

So yes, it excites me. And yes, it terrifies me. But most importantly, it reminds me: the best time to start is now, so we keep moving forward.

The Evidence Log

I’m a data person at heart. And data tells the story much clearer and truer than we want to tell it ourselves.

If I were telling you how I was doing without the data, I’d want to paint it in rosy fashion—glowing reviews, glossing over the harder parts. But when I look at the details I’m documenting in this blog, in my journal, on the scale, I know if what I’ve set out to do is actually working.

I can see it in real time.

The scale? Essentially the same as Day 6. That tells me something: if I don’t see movement in the next week, I need to tighten up my diet even more. That’s not failure—that’s feedback. That’s data steering the strategy.

The novel revision? 65 chapters done. Over halfway through 105. That tells me the creative hour works.

The blog posts? Fourteen consecutive days published. That tells me daily writing isn’t just possible—it’s sustainable.

This is the beauty of the process I’ve set up:

I’m not trying to eat an elephant all at once. I’ve broken it down into small chunks. I know what I have to do every day. I’m documenting it. And I can see the data actually showing me where I’m going—versus where I would want to say I’m going in my head.

If I’m honest and pay attention to the data, I can course-correct and keep moving forward.

Two Weeks Down

These past two weeks are something I’m very proud of. And I will continue to build on them as I keep practicing the 7-40 Challenge.

Day 14 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise (Workout A + Walking) ✅ Reading ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour

Fourteen consecutive perfect days. Data collecting. Evidence building.

Where are you in the goals you’ve set for yourself? Have you laid it out in a way that’s incrementally achievable? Drop a comment—let’s encourage each other.

See you tomorrow for Day 15.

Day 13: One Brick at a Time (And Why Compound Interest Changes Everything)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

One of the things I’m learning most on the 7-40 Challenge—and what excites me most—is seeing how daily goals turn into long-term progress.

Here’s the math: A 1% improvement every single day compounds to a 37x return in a year. That’s not motivation speak. That’s mathematics.

You can erode a foundation one brick at a time. Well, you can also build one brick at a time. The principle is the same—small, consistent actions create massive results over time.

The Thirty-Year Dream

I’ve wanted to write a novel since I was fourteen years old. That’s over thirty years of “someday I’ll do that.”

Thirty years of wishing. Failed attempts. Abandoned drafts. Good intentions that never materialized.

In the late 2000s, I wrote a small children’s Christmas book—about ten to fifteen pages. I was proud of it. I think it sold two copies. But that wasn’t the dream. I wanted a full-on, full-length novel.

Last year, I finally decided I was going to do it.

It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought.

How It Actually Happened

Here’s the thing about writing a novel: you write a scene. You read it over. You write some more. The story keeps building. You have a decent idea, you turn it into a better idea through revision and notes. And gradually, something really cool emerges.

But it still follows this principle: you have to have repeatable daily goals and tangible milestones you can accomplish every single day to build toward larger goals.

They don’t just happen. You have to actually make time for them.

I started small. One scene at a time. One chapter at a time. I kept building, and before I knew it, I had a complete first draft: 105 chapters.

Where I Am Now

It’s a YA novel about teens with superpowers in the nineties. I’m not going to tell you more than that yet—I’m in the editing process and want to roll it out properly. But here’s what matters:

I’m currently revising chapters 61 through 65. That means I’m over halfway through the revision process on a 105-chapter manuscript.

Thirty years of “someday.” One year of actual work. And now, halfway through polishing something I’m genuinely proud of.

Why The 7-40 Challenge Made This Possible

This is why the 7-40 Challenge has been perfect for this season. I work on seven daily habits. I’ll keep working on these seven daily habits. And in my creative hour, I continue to refine and revise this novel.

One chapter at a time. One day at a time. Compound interest in action.

By early this year, I’ll be working on getting it submitted for publication or publishing it myself. We’ll see what unfolds.

But what I know for sure is this: the dream didn’t change. My daily actions did.

For thirty years, I talked about writing a novel. Last year, I started. This year, I’m finishing.

That’s not luck. That’s compound interest. That’s one brick at a time.

Day 13 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise (Walking) ✅ Reading ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour (chapters 61-65 )

Thirteen consecutive perfect days. One brick at a time.

The best time to start building? Not looking back to what I should have done thirty years ago. Not someday. Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 14.