quit saying I'm sorry

I always have said sorry for minor things, and have gotten used to saying sorry for things I know aren’t my fault. Like if someone trips ten feet away from me, I apologize. It’s a bad habit. I’m sort of growing out of that, but recently I was in a situation where a person I care about wanted me to apologize, but I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. So I told them that I was NOT sorry and that it wasn’t my fault, and I wasn’t going to let them make me feel guilty. And it made me feel so much better about myself.

I think human behavior is totally out of whack these days. It seems the overuse of saying “sorry” compulsively has trivialized the word. I was on the bus, and a man barely grazed my foot. I hardly noticed it. He apologized like he had broken my leg or something. Ironically, he could possibly be the same sort of guy who, if he almost ran me over with his car or something, would flip me off and cuss at me. I think it is due to the fact that there is a closer proximity to people on the bus. Something about being in a car gives a person a false sense of superiority and power, and makes them ruder and more aggressive. I have several ways I handle when a person says “sorry” to me when it is not necessary. I say “oh, I’m tough. It didn’t even hurt”, or “I’ve got a good lawyer, so I might sue you next time you touch my foot”, or, simply, “why…what did you do?” Please, people, quit saying “sorry, sorry, sorry” unless its an occasion when asking forgiveness is truly needed.

I’m consistently better at not saying those reflexive ‘sorry’s. I say it when I mean it now 90% of the time and that’s a big improvement.

Someone said excuse me so I moved but my automatic reaction was “Sorry…” and I caught myself but it still slipped out. I was so tired though…so I will remain vigilant! :)

I did notice that I haven’t done that in awhile. Progress is being made! So I will check this goal off because I have an important one waiting for me. :)

I think if I’m really tired, I tend to fall back on this annoying habit. >.< It’s not that good…but some days, I’ll be really disciplined and stop myself before I say it. :)

I just need to keep working on this some more! Go me!
Good luck to everyone attempting this goal as well.

say sorry nearly as much as I used to.

Yet at the same time I suspect I’m not as nice of a person as I once was.

Fair trade off? I dunno..

Oh well, mission accomplished!

when people keep apologizing to me when there’s nothing to apologize for. So this really keeps this goal in mind for me. I’m trying, I’m trying. But wow…who knew it’s such a difficult habit to break?!

One of my friends mentioned in a conversation yesterday that she heard someone describe this habit as “weak” and an expression of “expressing our own weakness” or at least, could be seen as that even if we’re not. I think so too…at least in American culture, it definitely can be seen as a weakness, because why are we sorry when there is technically nothing to be sorry about? It’s not like we’re really sorry sometimes…it’s such a powerful word rendered into a word that’s overused. I wish this was easier.

Any suggestions on how to STOP apologizing for every little thing? (I refuse to say “My bad” because it sounds immature to me and in some tone of voices, sounds really sarcastic and fake.)

My name is alex hartley, im 15, and i have a problem with saying sorry. My friends tell me not to say it but i come out with ok sorry, its a habit. I think it started when i was in year 5-6 i didont realy trust pplz and i would continue to ask them if they hated me. When i got to high shool i didont know any one and i was very quiet i realy wanted people to not hate me so i would say sorry when i bumped in to them as i was walking past them, and when they would ask to borow my pencil i would say “yea of corse sorry”. i didont talk much eather and i think that anoyed a lot of people. anyway i moved to darwin in the last term of year 8 and i made a lot of friends i started to talk to people. but i stoped being the new girl and i thort people wer making up romers and i didont like thet so i started saying sorry again. Now people are sick of me i think cos my boy friend and i broke up and my friend (lets call her “stacy”) has bean looking for an excuse to stop being my friend or at least thats the way she makes me feal some times. we ust to talk a lot but now we dont talk very much. I think shes worred i like her boy friend. But anyway i realy do want to stop this sorry thing b 4 i lose any more friends thanks 4 listening.

I always say sorry first, with my friends,my family,my husband! I just realized that by apologizing first it enables others to stay complacent. If they know you will always say sorry then they know they don’t have to. I want to help others by going on a sorry diet. Burn you perverts its your fault Ha! We create our own realities. :D
Dani

“in any case there’s no use in dopin’ chokin’ mopin’ and sobbin’
come on you disheartenin’ dobbins
sayin’ sorry is my problem
so to conclude
I’m a little of a prude
so it’s difficult for me to have to allude
to all this rude crude verbal baggage
but I manage cuz I’m a savage inside”

- Nellie McKay