Tag: mental-health

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 19: The Limiting Belief I’m Done Carrying

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been reading “Your Best Year Ever” by Michael Hyatt during my walks, and today I hit the chapter on limiting beliefs.

It punched me in the face.

The Limiting Belief I’ve Been Carrying

“Social media is too difficult to figure out.”

I watch others build audiences, create videos that get views, write posts that get engagement – and I wonder why they can figure it out so easily while I struggle. I have the desire to lead by example, but I can’t get my message out.

Here’s the truth I need to admit: I’ve been using this as a cop-out.

Sometimes I think limiting beliefs are just forms of laziness. We allow ourselves to believe them because it’s easier to stay small and not put the time in to really master what we say we want to do.

For me? I’ve always prioritized other things over social strategy. And the difference I’m encountering now – on Day 19 of perfect execution – is this: I want to stop wasting time.

I want to achieve these things for myself. And I want to use that experience to provide hope for other people.

The Real Cost of Staying Small

The crazy part is, I don’t know if I’ll ever really know what staying small has cost me.

I’m a firm believer in the butterfly effect. By making ripples and striving toward good things, we inspire others to do the same. And while I’ve tried to do that in my personal life for many years – hopefully people have seen it – I have not articulated the reason WHY behind what I do.

That’s a missed opportunity to lift somebody else up.

I can’t measure the cost of ripples I never created. The people I never inspired. The conversations that never happened. The transformations that never started because someone didn’t see that it was possible.

Why Now? Why This Challenge?

I think I’m like everybody else – you get old enough and you realize your opportunities are starting to slip past you.

You’re not as trim as you used to be. Your hair’s not as dark as it once was. You’re moving slower, aching more. All these signs of time passing, and yet a full list of things you still say you want to do.

For years I’ve read Dan Miller, who wrote “48 Days to the Work You Love.” One of his favorite sayings: “Don’t die with your music still in you.”

At 47, I’ve got music still inside. And I’m done letting limiting beliefs keep it there.

The New Belief I’m Building

Starting Day 20, here’s what I’m choosing to believe instead:

I have a message worth sharing.

We have agency in our lives, and it’s our responsibility to use that agency for good. By forming habits that serve us instead of working against us, we leverage that agency and make the world a better place.

Social media isn’t too difficult. It’s just unfamiliar. And I’ve figured out harder things than this.

I revised a 105-chapter novel in 19 days. I’ve executed seven daily habits with zero misses. I’ve written 19 consecutive blog posts while learning compound interest principles and teaching myself systematic transformation.

If I can do that, I can figure out how to create a 60-second TikTok video.

The Shift Starts Tomorrow

Day 20, my creative hour shifts focus. I’ve finished the first revision pass on my novel. Beta readers (my wife and son) are reading it now. While they give feedback, I’m building the distribution infrastructure I’ve been avoiding.

No more cop-outs. No more staying small. No more prioritizing comfortable over uncomfortable.

I have a message worth sharing. And starting tomorrow, I’m learning how to share it.

Day 19 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise (Workout A) ✅ Reading (Your Best Year Ever – limiting beliefs chapter) ✅ Calories ✅ Water ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour (first novel revision COMPLETE – 97 chapters)

Nineteen consecutive perfect days. The limiting belief ends here.

The best time to stop staying small? Now.

See you tomorrow for Day 20.

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 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.