Here are eleven words I’d like to hear more often:

“I was wrong. I’m sorry and I won’t do it again.”

Because here’s the thing. Especially if you say a whole lot of other stuff–but you don’t say that what you did was wrong–then it sounds like you don’t believe that what you did was wrong.

And if you don’t say “I won’t do it again”, it sounds like you are going to do it again.