5 Minutes of Misery

I recently received an email advertisement for improving foreign language learning in five minutes a day.  It was aimed at people who really want to start learning a new language in earnest, and swear they'll set aside one or two hours to get started, but then never have a chance to set aside the time (this was my problem with guitar - now I just set aside 10 minutes and usually, by some miracle, play longer).

I didn't click on the ad, because it was a podcast, and I typically like skimming my marketing barf via reading rather than listening or watching something.  However, it did make me look up "5 minute language learning."   All of the results I found were simply links back to the same advertisement I wanted to avoid.  While looking up those keywords, though, Google did suggest "5 minute journal."  Intrigued, I went back to look into the search today to determine if it may provide tips for bootstrapping my writing frequency.

I was less than impressed.

The 5 Minute Journal is a product.  Its main purpose is to encourage you to write daily affirmations and goals in the morning and again in the evening.  While I think those are some things that one can write in a journal, I'm of the belief that a journal should encompass all thoughts and quirks of the day, not just the positive ones.

I'll be honest.  I've had a hard time keeping a journal consistently.  While I like writing, I don't generally like writing about myself.  And I find it exceptionally strange to write about myself to myself.  I've heard in many cases it serves as a pocket therapist and in spurring creativity, but that's been a tough argument for me to buy over the course of my life.

Regardless, a journal is about thoughts and feelings.  If in the 5 Minute Journal, I write Today I'm grateful that I have a roof over my head instead of There's a fucking leak in my ceiling after the contractor redid the roof, I got yelled out for not letting the professional contractor do his job, and the contractor isn't responding to me in a timely manner, I'm missing a lot of nuance from my day, don't you think?  By writing the latter, it allows me to vent, put something down that isn't as trite as Life is a unicorn!  I want to get shafted by the horn! and will probably even lead me to think that, in the scheme of things, maybe I shouldn't get so worked up about a leak.  In writing this in about 100 words, I've had the chance to exercise some creativity, vent, swear, and reflect.  An affirmation would simply pack all of that away below the surface until it reappears in one long string of Fuck you!s after another somewhere down the line. 

So, I'll be thankful today that I had a chance to rant about my roof and affirmations.