Have you ever found yourself saying, “Sorry! Sorry!” out of habit or anxiety? Certainly, I have. This is not so much a true apology for harm done, but a strange way of both diminishing ourselves and calling attention to ourselves. And it does not serve us or the situation. In fact, it undermines both.

This week, take note if you find yourself apologizing for simply being, doing your job, speaking up, making a trivial mistake. Resist the urge to apologize. Apologizing in these instances disrupts and undermines. Instead, graciously move forward. If you are unsure of the difference between a real and needed apology and an habitual or anxious, “sorry,” ask yourself, “Would Joan of Arc apologize for this?”

Read on for how actors recover when they forget a line…