Stop saying you’re sorry, because you’re not.

This issue has become a pet peeve for me. I’m a big believer in words having power and that if you over use them that power can fade. Sorry is one of those words.

People are constantly saying it, even though they are not, in fact, sorry. It’s a knee jerk reaction, one born either of trauma or being convinced that saying it makes you polite, it does not.

Saying sorry for everything doesn’t help or make the other person feel better. It becomes just a word with no meaning. I know, I know, well what are we supposed to say.

Well, how about “thank you for waiting for me”, when you are late, “I appreciate you being flexible/understanding” when you have to change plans. There are many ways to acknowledge someone’s patience other than saying sorry.

You are not small, you deserve to have opinions and boundaries. That fear you may feel when you (think!) have disappointed someone is what is pushing you to say sorry. The thing is that you have to remember that, that is what it is, fear.

Here’s what I like to remind people of “those who matter don’t mind, and those that mind don’t matter.