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# Hard Days
- URL: https://acmewong.com/hard-days/
- Published: 2026-09-20T19:37:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-20T19:37:06.000Z
- Author: Acme Wong

Daisy, oh Daisy... 

Daisy is my old, shared-custody, self-aware, digestively-challenged Bichon-Poodle.

She was snuggled up on the heating pad in the living room when I checked on her last night.

She was still snuggled up there when I checked on her again, just before I got into bed.

I toss and I turn.

I can't get comfortable.

That's normal though.

It usually takes me a while to fall asleep.

After 20 or 30 minutes, I finally drift off to sleep.

Sweet, sweet, glorious magnificent sleep.

Not long after, I hear tappy-toes tippy-tapping across the hard floor and pretty-paws scritchy-scratching at the bed.

And so my night of sleepless torment begins, brought upon me by my own beloved fur-daughter.

She needed to urgently go outside to do her business.

Twenty-five minutes later, we come back in, I get comfortable again, I fall asleep, and then scritchy-scratchy.

Same drill.

Finally, sleep.

But then it happens a third time.

That's three urgent runny dookie-poop runs from 11pm to 3am.

Thinking there might be a fourth, I grab my blanket and try to sleep on the sofa, which was far less comfortable than I thought it'd be.

It was less sleep and more impersonating sleep.

And so my sleepless night turned to tired day and the question becomes, "will I stick with my habits or will I use this as an excuse to get out of doing things that I said I would do?"

I have a daily habit tracker in my physical journal.

The habits I'm currently tracking daily are: walking 10,000 steps, writing 500+ words, doing street photography, filming a vlog, doing pushups and planks, and meditating.

Each day, I make a happy green checkmark next to the habits I completed and a sad red X next to the habits I failed to complete.

These past four days have been completely green.

Four perfect rows of happy green checkmarks. 

I didn't miss a single habit over these perfect past four days.

So now the universe sends this hellhound to test whether or not that was a fluke.

The Muse wants to know if I am truly dedicated to my commitments.

To the cause of creative expression.

As I write this, it is noon and I have yet to go on my morning walk, do my street photography, get even 1,000 steps, and I also have errands to run and a family get-together to attend.

And I am tired.

So very tired.

But I will, before this day is done, at the very minimum do my writing, photography, and vlogging.

And I will do my best not to stop there.

I intend to get all my exercise stuff in, even if I gotta walk back and forth from the kitchen to the bathroom 50 times before bed to hit my 10,000 steps. 

The things I make today in my state of sleep deprived delirium will NOT be pretty, but something beautiful will happen under the surface as I honor my commitments, these things that I could just as easily NOT do.

Something expands and opens up and unlocks in our inner worlds when we push through, and the Muse notices our efforts more on our hard days.

So don't give up.

The hardest days are the most important days to show up.

Everything begins to change when we pass these tests.

Hasta mañana,   
Acme