I had a student once who was a lot like me. He talked too much in class. 😬It didn’t matter where he sat or who was nearby. He might have been a little too loud. 📣I understood! I had to put my nose in a ⭕️circle drawn on the wall by my 7th grader Science teacher for an entire class period because I couldn’t control my mouth. I digress. Let’s get back to the story. This kiddo was quick to offer up an “I’m 😔sorry” every time I’d ask him to be quiet- and go right back to his conversation. I could look in his direction, and he’d quickly say, “SORRY!” This happened hundreds of times. Not kidding! We had way too many chats about it. Saying 😔sorry in the middle of a conversation without breaking his verbal stride didn’t really work. I’m sure he knows that now as a young adult, but he was just a middle schooler then. He was learning, and he was lucky that I didn’t draw a circle on the wall for him.😂
The word sorry gets tossed around all day, every day. It rolls right off the tongue without much effort, doesn’t it? It is often just filler in the conversation. 😔Sorry- I didn’t realize what time it was. 😔Sorry- there was traffic. 😔Sorry- I should have asked first.
Sorry without action is just a word.✅
Let’s take that one step further. Sorry without action is manipulation.💥
Read that again. Sorry without action is manipulation. 💥
Kinda stings, doesn’t it? Maybe because you’ve been the one saying sorry without action. Perhaps because you’ve been the one hearing it.
Sorry is just a word if the behavior doesn’t change.
You know another version of sorry that drives me crazy? MY BAD! When someone responds with MY BAD, it seems like a sincere sorry is nuanced with a flippant “I don’t really care.” Am I alone in that thinking? 🤔Say sorry. Add an explanation. But, when the MY BAD is thrown in there, it just seems hollow. Call me weird.🤷🏻♀️
So, what do we do about the word 😔sorry? How do we convey that we mean it? The answer is easy. We act on it. When the feeling is genuine, the actions should come naturally. We want to make sure that behavior changes when we genuinely feel sorry. 💯If I’m just saying the word, I doubt I even give change a second thought. 😔All too often, we say the word, hope that corrects the problem, and move right along. Sometimes, the word doesn’t fix the issue. Sometimes, that word creates even more problems. 😬It’s the actions after the word sorry that make the difference.👍🏻
What if… you’re sorry? Saying we’re 😔sorry is easy. Showing we’re sorry takes thought and effort and- yes- sometimes guts. 💪🏻Do the right thing. Otherwise, sorry is just a word. Make it mean something.💖
sharing the stairs 