I was raised as an only child, this meant I had a lot of time on my hands. Therefore, opposed to going outside and socializing with others, I preferred to stay inside and read. This has resulted In me becoming more of an introverted person. Recently I have taken a job in retail where I am forced out of my comfort zone and have to engage with people. One habit of my introverted self that I cannot seem to get rid of is my tendency to say sorry. Even when something is not my fault I still cannot stop myself from doing it. After a while I noticed that when dealing with customers from Eastern cultures they acted embarrassed when I apologized to them for doing something rather minor and insignificant. They usually then began profusely assuring me that it was no big deal and telling me that it was okay. To me it seems that they felt as if they had committed a great offense to me. To me it seems that in Eastern cultures apologies carry a lot more weight than in Western cultures. I found this to be a very interesting concept which is why I feel compelled to write about it. The google definition of the word sorry is: “feeling distress, especially through sympathy with someone else's misfortune”. The second definition which applies more here is: “feeling regret or penitence”. In our Western culture “sorry” is as common of a word as “the”. We say it whether we accidentally bump into somebody or spill our drink on them. We say it so often it is hard to unlearn it. At the start of October I decided I would try to say sorry less. It was not in the manner of being rude to others by not apologizing for things I did wrong. My goal was to try to stop compulsively saying sorry. One thing that helped me significantly is pausing before responding. This helps because it gives you time to formulate an actual response opposed to just blurting out “I’m sorry”. You can also try asking a question. Sometimes we use sorry as a way to get someone’s attention. The issue with this is you may come off as passive and people may not listen to you. Instead of saying “Sorry for getting in your way”, try saying “May I move past you?” Another way you can transform “sorry” is turning it into a “thank you” statement. Instead of saying “sorry for being late”, try saying “thanks for waiting for me”. My personal favorite trick you can try is replacing sorry with another word. I usually try to replace “sorry” with “yikes”. This takes the responsibility off of you and instead just acknowledges that the thing happened. These are the methods I used to try to say sorry less. I hope these methods benefit whoever happens to need them. This website here greatly assisted me in my journey so if you are trying to do what I am taking a look at it may be a good idea.
https://www.thesaurus.com/e/ways-to-say/stop-saying-sorry/ Brody T.
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