Normally when friends come to me for advice, I tell them some version of this:

Usually this works wonders for them. However when it comes to me, "I'm sorry" is one of my top said phrases. I know it's annoying to hear that every time one of my quirks slip out. While it's endearing in the first encounters, it soon becomes suspicious. No one can be that nice and apologetic all of the time.

Take yesterday for example. I was so sick that I couldn't make it out of bed until 2pm and I still managed to apologize to my supervisor over the phone while sounding and looking like death. I had no control over the fatigue coming over me and it was still worthy of my personal condolences to another person.

The lesson for today is to stop apologizing when I don't need to. Everything I do doesn't require a "sorry". I need to become more comfortable with not being at my best at all times. Sometimes it's ok to look like death. When you're sick for the third day, that's how you're supposed to look.