The Shut Your Mouth Campaign Part 2 // a little flavor of Monday

So this is part two in the Shut Your Mouth Campaign. This is not a national campaign and as of yet we have not had any marches or sit-ins, nor are any planned for the near future. We’ve made no signs and cast no great speeches either.

In fact, we are one member strong…we is me. You see, I have this incessant problem of continually opening my mouth and offending people rather unintentionally. Or, I have to retract bold proclamations and assertions previously made even when I don’t have all the information…thus the need for retraction. Mostly, this habitual problem is due to arrogance the fact that I like to be blunt and shoot straight with people (and they don’t always like that) or I’m just saying what I’m thinking without fully processing what I’m about to say.

As a result, I’ve decided to campaign against myself with two goals: keeping my mouth shut, and thinking before I speak, all with the end purpose of becoming better at life in general.

Why Monday you ask. Because this is the start of the work week and I need to kick things off well. Because this is the day that I do most of my talking. Its kind of downhill from here as far as how much I have to say to people. You’d think I would go home more hoarse on Sundays when I sing for so long but actually Monday’s are worse for my voice. I start the day with a three hour meeting with our senior pastor, Rusty, our connections pastor, Josh, and the guy I call the pastor who makes a whole bunch of stuff run like its supposed to, Jack. When that meeting is finished, I move into a planning meeting with Dan, our production guy, about the things that we’ve got coming up. From there, Dan and I head a creative planning meeting for upcoming Sunday’s and future series that lasts anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours (this meeting, while sometimes not as “productive” in the eyes of all of you who are not artists has the potential to be the most fun as a lot of crazy ideas can get tossed around). When this meeting is done, its up for grabs as far as who needs something from me.

When all this is complete…..utter exhaustion.

So as you can see, I have a myriad of opportunites to say something that leaves me frustrated the rest of day with thoughts of, “Are you kidding me, I really said that? Can I go back and not say that? How do I keep my mouth shut? Is it impossible for me to think before I speak? I hope that person doesn’t hate me.”

Let the Shut Your Mouth, Brian, its Monday! Campaign commence. I’ll update you tonight on how it went. (There are rumors that I will apply gaff tape or even gorilla tape to my mouth to aide in this worthy cause.)

p.s. Ouch! And note to self, tape hurts on one’s beard when removing.

p.p.s. Does this count as a sign?

p.p.p.s If that is a sign, is that sign backwards?

p.p.p.p.s Don’t post next time until you flip pic so its readable.