Tag: self-care

Day 12: More Than Just Checking Boxes (Why This Challenge Is Emotional)

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

I’m in the Emotional chapter of “Made to Stick” this morning, and something caught my attention.

The Heath brothers tell a story about a soldier cook. He had retired, but when offered an opportunity to cook for soldiers in Iraq, he jumped at the post. When asked about his job, he didn’t say “I prepare food.” He said: “My job is morale.”

He understood something deeper than the task list. Yes, he cooked meals. But his real job was building the strength soldiers needed to keep fighting, to survive, to stay mentally sharp in war.

That hit me hard. Because the 7-40 Challenge can’t just be about checking boxes.

The Real Job

Bible study. Exercise. Reading. Water. Calories. Gratitude. Creative work.

Seven habits. Forty days. Repeated seven times.

On the surface, that’s what I’m doing. But here’s the truth: my job is to be living proof that change is possible.

I was made to help people. To make their lives better, easier, more purposeful. I feel that call deep inside me—the need to take care of people, to build them up, to show them what’s possible.

But I can’t do that and ignore myself.

I have to fill my cup so I can fill others.

Why This Is Emotional for Me

This isn’t self-improvement for self-improvement’s sake. If the goal were just about me, it would be much too small.

I’m doing this because:

My family needs me healthy and strong. Fewer illnesses means less stress on my wife. More energy means I can be active, do the home improvement projects we love, spend time doing whatever activities we choose. Better mood means better interactions with everyone around me.

My son needs to see this. Not hear about transformation someday—watch it happen in real time. So when life gets hard for him, he knows it’s possible to choose differently.

The 1,000 people I want to impact need proof. By clearly defining the transformation I’m undergoing and letting people watch it play out in real time, I’m demonstrating the courage they need to name their own transformation—which may be completely different than mine. But watching mine unfold might inspire them to face theirs.

The Ripple Effect

When I’m healthy, strong, and energized, my world improves. And everything my world touches improves.

My marriage gets stronger. My parenting gets more present. My work gets sharper. My ability to help others grows exponentially.

That’s not narcissism. That’s stewardship.

I can’t pour from an empty cup. And at times over the past twenty+ years, I’ve run on fumes, talking about “someday” while my cup stayed empty.

Not anymore.

Motivation and Movement

The soldier cook understood: his real job was giving soldiers the strength to keep fighting.

My real job? Giving people stuck in “someday” mode the courage to actually move. To break from routine’s gravity. To start now instead of waiting for perfect.

And I can only do that if I’m doing it myself.

Day 12. Twelve perfect days behind me. Not because I’m special, but because the mission is bigger than me.

Day 12 Scorecard: ✅ Bible study ✅ Exercise (Workout B – back, biceps, legs) ✅ Reading (Made to Stick – Emotional chapter) ✅ Water ✅ Calories ✅ Gratitude ✅ Creative hour

The best time to fill your cup? Now. Not for yourself alone. For everyone who needs you at your best.

My job isn’t just the habits.

It’s to be living proof that change is possible.

See you tomorrow for Day 13.

Gratitude Sunday: My Mom and George Bailey

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

One of my favorite Christmas movies is It’s a Wonderful Life.

When I was younger, I liked it because an angel comes down and helps a guy get through a hard time. You get to see his whole story unfold and figure out who he really is. I didn’t see the deep significance as a young person watching this movie for the first time.

As I’ve gotten older, George Bailey’s story has become far too familiar.

I see it in life all around me. People—many wonderful people—don’t realize the good they do. They don’t understand how their influence has shaped the world around them far more than they know.

One person I can see this to be true about is my mother.

A Life of Selfless Love

My mother is one of the most selfless, wonderful people I have ever met or had the pleasure to know. She is kind and caring and deeply concerned with the well-being of others.

This flows from her relationship with God, which has been solid for as long as I can remember. She loves Jesus dearly. And because of that, she has consistently, over the years, shown people God’s love in countless ways.

I’ve seen her stop in the grocery store and share God with people or stop and pray with them just because she knew they needed it. I’ve seen her give of herself and run herself ragged to make sure that the people she served and the people she loved were taken care of.

But I’m going to tell this story from my perspective, from what I’ve seen in my own life.

Songs and Stories in the Early ’80s

My mother, in the early ’80s, started telling me stories about Jesus. She would sing songs and read the Bible with me. She was very involved in making sure that I knew that Jesus loved me—and also building me up to be a confident and strong young man.

She was consistent in her love.

I reminded her the other day that she’s the reason I know Jesus, just as she’s the reason many other people in this world know Jesus as well. She’s the reason people have found hope when they didn’t have any. She’s the reason people have found kindness when they most needed it.

She has been God’s love to people repeatedly throughout her life.

And just like George Bailey, I don’t think she understands just how far her influence has gone.

The Billy Graham Question

It makes me think.

If I asked you, “Do you know who Billy Graham is?” most of us—whether we are Christians or not—have heard the name. We know he was a very famous minister. We know that he touched countless lives with the love of God and with the message of God’s salvation.

But if I asked you, “What was the name of the man who introduced Billy Graham to Jesus?” I don’t think many of us would know who that is.

You never know the effect you have on someone’s life. You never know the influence. You never know the good that you do. You’ll never see the full picture.

But that shouldn’t stop you from doing good.

My Gratitude

So to say the least, I’m grateful for my mother.

I’m grateful for the way she’s loved me and taken care of me. Even though it’s been many, many years since I’ve lived in their home, she still loves me and prays for me to this day like I’m her baby boy.

Her influence on me has been outstanding.

And I can only imagine the influence she’s had on others—the people whose names I’ll never know, whose stories I’ll never hear, whose lives were changed because she stopped in a grocery store or prayed with someone who was hurting or sang songs about Jesus to a little boy in the early ’80s.

She’ll never know how far her influence has gone.

But I do know this: I wouldn’t be here without her. I wouldn’t know Jesus without her. I wouldn’t be attempting this 7-40 Challenge without the foundation she helped build in my life.

So thank you, Mom.

For being God’s love when I needed it most.

For never giving up on me.

For showing me what it looks like to live a life of purpose.

You’re far more influential than you know.

And I’m forever grateful.

#ThankYouCampaign #GratitudeSunday #ItsAWonderfulLife #GeorgeBailey #MothersLove #Faith #Jesus #Grateful #FamilyLegacy #Influence #740Challenge #Purpose #ChristianLife #Thankful

Why Gratitude Is Habit #7 in My 7-40 Challenge: Three Gifts That Changed Everything

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

When I designed the 7-40 Challenge—seven daily habits practiced for 40 days, repeated throughout 2026—I had to make hard choices. Only seven habits. Not eight. Not ten. Seven.

Bible study made the list. So did exercise, calorie tracking, water intake, reading, and creative work. But the seventh spot? That one is special to me.

I chose gratitude.

Not because it’s trendy. Not because some productivity guru told me to keep a gratitude journal. I chose gratitude because without it, I forget who I am and whose I am.

Gifts, Not Guarantees

I’ve always tried to be a grateful person. Whether through things people have done for me or gifts I’ve received, I’ve understood—or mostly understood—that those gifts were just that: gifts. Not things to expect. Not things to demand.

But I’ve received some gifts in my life that go far beyond my deserving. And I see gratitude as a way to remain centered in those gifts and how thankful I am for them.

The first is my relationship with Jesus.

I recognize that I need Him, and He saved me when I called out to Him. He forgave me of my sins and made me His. I am forever grateful.

The second gift is my wife.

We met when we were 19 years old. Somehow we had the clarity of mind and the foresight to know we had found the person we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. We celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary this week, and she is the best friend I have ever had aside from God Himself.

The third gift is my son.

We prayed for a very long time for his arrival. When he finally came, it was not without complication. But God took care of him, and he has grown to be such a fine young man—so loving, so smart, so many other things. I am so grateful for him.

These three gifts—Jesus, my bride, my son—aren’t things I earned. They’re treasures I’ve been given. And gratitude is how I remember that.

And there are other ways gratitude has shaped me as well.

When Gratitude Becomes Survival

I was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004 when I was 26 years old. I went through chemotherapy in 2005 and thought I was cancer-free. I was beyond relieved and so grateful for a new start, a new opportunity to do good and be with my family.

For 13 years, life was normal.

Then in 2018, the doctor found a 13cm tumor that had shut off my left kidney. I was in excruciating pain. The diagnosis wasn’t good. It’s only by the grace of God that I am still here.

Because of that, I know I have purpose. I know I have more to do.

For this reason, I choose to be thankful every day.

Sometimes I start to forget. Life gets busy. Habits get routine. The miracle of waking up becomes ordinary again.

But it always comes back.

My heart is filled with so much gratitude for the opportunity to still be here with my family, to love them as hard as I can, and to do my best to live the life God wants me to live.

Gratitude isn’t a nice addition to my life. It’s how I survive with purpose.

Why Sundays Matter

That’s why gratitude is Habit #7 in my challenge. And that’s why every Sunday in 2026, I’m launching a Thank You Campaign—a weekly practice of publicly thanking the people who shaped me, believed in me, and invested in me even when I didn’t deserve it.

Because transformation doesn’t happen in isolation. I didn’t get here alone. And if I’m going to document 7 40 day rounds (280 days) as a “lab rat” proving that change is possible at any age, I need to acknowledge the truth: I am who I am because of the gifts I’ve been given and the people who gave them.

I choose to make my gratitude more tangible. I’m going to start saying thank you as often as I can because I choose a grateful heart.

Not just feeling it. Not just thinking it.

Saying it. Writing it. Making it real.

Because the best time to be grateful isn’t someday.

It’s now.

#thankyoucampaign #gratitude #thankyou

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.

Keep Getting Better: Day 8 of the 7-40 Challenge

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Hello, friends. Welcome to Day 8 of Round 3 in the 7-40 Challenge. It’s a bright, sunshiny day—perfect for a lunchtime walk that’s lifting my mood and shifting my outlook on everything else in life.

I was just listening to See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar, and one line stopped me in my tracks. He said: “When we stop getting better, not long after, we will soon no longer be good at what we do.”

Let that sink in. When we stop getting better, we cease to be good.

I’ve been turning this over in my mind, applying it to a few corners of my own life to see if it holds water. Spoiler: it does.

In My Day Job

If I coast on what I know today—doing the job exactly as I do it now—I’ll earn a paycheck for a while. But technology doesn’t pause. Innovations will sprout up around me, and before long I’ll be out of step, unable to perform at the level I once did. The world changes; if I stay the same, I become obsolete.

As the industrialist Andrew Carnegie once observed, “The only irreplaceable capital an organization possesses is the knowledge and ability of its people. The more you develop that, the more valuable it becomes.” Resting on yesterday’s skills is a quiet way to watch your value erode.

In My Marriage

If I stop investing in my relationship—stop dating my wife, stop deepening the connection—our marriage risks becoming less than we dreamed. Frustrations creep in, fulfillment fades. Without continual improvement, what’s good today won’t stay good tomorrow.

As a Dad

I love my son fiercely. I want a strong relationship with him as he grows, and I want him to become a happy, healthy, well-adjusted man grounded in faith, hope, and a deep belief in God. That doesn’t happen on autopilot. I have to keep instructing, keep loving, keep teaching him how to navigate a world full of dangers, how to resist temptation, how to stand tall as a man in a culture that increasingly makes it hard.

If I stop improving as a father, what I have will cease to be good.

In My Health

That’s why I’m out here walking, why I’m carving out an hour to work out, why I’m pushing to return to optimal levels. I feel better, yes—but more importantly, I’m ensuring the day never comes when I’m no longer able to move, to play, to keep up.

The inventor Thomas Edison put it bluntly: “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” Improvement isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the only sustainable path.

The Bottom Line

Improvement isn’t optional. It’s the price of staying good at anything that matters. It demands change, growth, and occasional discomfort. But the alternative—stagnation—is far costlier.

I want to be more and do more than I am today.

I want to be more for my family.

I want to be more in my career.

I want to be more for everyone I influence.

I want to keep getting better.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing—thank you for reading these words. I appreciate you. I’m grateful for you. And I hope you, too, are striving to become the best version of yourself.

See you tomorrow for Day 9.