Apology lessons

You know Andree,

I once gave a presentation live in a classroom. The instructor required the other students to provide feedback. Everyone said all kinds of nice and cuddly sayings. However, one fellow, whom I really respected wrote me a note that hurt me for years. The sad part, was that what he said was not really that bad. All he commented on was that I had apologized for myself at the beginning of the presentation.

Years later, I attended a Dale Carnegie Seminar and read a number of his books. This very principle was demonstrated before our eyes. This beautiful confident woman had done incredible mental gymnastics before our eyes. Her trainer was there supervising her whole first time as a trainer for us. What did she do? She apologized. It ruined our entire experience.

A third time this lesson came to me as well. I now no longer apologize from a place of weakness and shame. I simply say with the skin of a rhinoceros, 'sorry', or 'my apologies.' The difference, is that I have released the baggage and the 'extraneous editorialism.' Know that your classmates are learning too. As you go on in the course work you will have perhaps more of these experiences. Try not to take them personally.

We are all on our own paths in different places to where we want to be.