Over-apologizing is a problem that a lot of us can face but there are some easy steps you can take to keep your "I'm sorry," from losing its meaning over time.
LifeHacker explains that the reason why we tend to over-apologize is that as humans we feel that placing the blame on ourselves will mitigate responsibility, but when we start to apologize for every little thing the apologies start to lose their meaning. Here's what you can use in certain situations instead of a simple "I'm sorry":
- Replace "I'm sorry to interrupt," with: "I appreciate that thought, but what I wanted to say is..."
- Instead of "I'm sorry," say "Thank you": Drop "I'm sorry I'm late" and use "Thanks for waiting for me"
- Own up to a mistake by expressing your understanding: Instead of a casual sorry when you mess up, expand it to say "I see what I did there, let me work on fixing it"
If these seem a bit full on, you can always tweak the apology in a different way...or just fix the behavior thats leading the over-apologizing in the first place.