Very insightful, Paul. A good reminder not to describe ourselves as “busy”, and I often find myself saying “does that make sense?” to my own coaching clients. I’m going to stop doing it! Thanks for making me aware of the problem it creates.
I'm trying to break the habit of "I'm sorry". So many times I apologise ("I'm sorry to bother you, I'm sorry I can't do that right now") when the better response is to be polite but assertive (e.g "Excuse me are you free now or should I come back in an hour?, I'm booked at the moment, but I could help you with that next week").
I find myself using "not bad & does that make sense"