Are you programmed to give the same answer

I messed up a young girl this morning at a restaurant.

Having worked in restaurants for over 8 years of my life, I am preconditioned to ask people how they are as soon as I see them. When someone comes into a restaurant, that is the greeter's job.

This morning, the young greeter came to me and I asked her how she was doing before she had a chance to say anything. She stumbled on her words. She stuttered. It took three obvious seconds before she could rethink her words.

It was three seconds of awkward silence. It felt like a minute.

I don't fault her. She's trying to do her job. She would rather be somewhere else.

This simple exchange made me think about some of the programmed answers and things I say.

How do you answer the phone?

How do you answer the door?

What about your emails? Do you always close with the same signoff?

I catch myself all the time going into the set of words that may not have any meaning with the current conversation. I've programmed my brain to say them.

I once told a stranger that I loved them. The conversation ended exactly like one I would have with my wife and the words just exploded off the tongue. Talk about awkward...

My mouth tries to work faster than my brain. It's like my mouth hasn't received the orders from the brain on what to say, so it says what it thinks it should say. Some call this not having a filter.

It's not a filter. It's more like my mouth has a mind of its own. Maybe that's where "speaking one's mind" comes from. The brain is like the leader of the nation, and the mouth is the general of the army. The general wants to secretly run the nation so he goes behind the leader's back and does what he thinks is in the best interest of himself.  It's a coup d'etat.

The mouth might just be the gateway to the ego.

I think of all the times my mouth has gotten me in trouble. If I could've just bit my tongue...

And then I think of all the times my mouth says stuff without accepting the appropriate orders from the brain. My mouth goes off, in the wilderness, rambling away, trying to find a coherent thought while the brain processes all of the information, until a message is sent through the synapses and the mouth says something of value.

Am I the only one who has this problem?