You don’t shrink when you apologize. Weirdly, people start looking up to you.

Admitting a fault reads as strength because only someone reasonably secure can afford to do it. The fear is that owning a mistake hands over power, when it actually ends the argument about whether it happened. The shrinking you imagine does not occur, and the respect often does.

Try one clean apology this week with no explanation attached, no because and no but. Name the thing, say it was yours, say what you will do differently. Then stop, and notice that the room gets easier rather than harder.