Hi, its great to see you here again!

If we cannot trust another person, then there is really no relationship. When considering the definition of trust, I find it difficult to separate unselfishness from trust. What do you think? Think about the following comments.

A person who openly displays characteristics of selfishness is not someone whom you will readily trust. You will know that in moments of stress or life crisis, you could never count on them to help or support you. They will be too busy thinking about themselves.

You would also know that they will probably even be unreliable to keep an appointment or an agreement because if something comes up meanwhile that is more beneficial to them, then they will more than likely conveniently “forget” about their obligations to you.

We Learnt To Mistrust

It is very sad but true that by the time most of us arrive at adulthood we have had to learn to mistrust.

Perhaps you have to face a few betrayals and disillusionments to come to the conclusion that it is not always good to readily trust a person until you get to know them, but unfortunately most of us have had to come to this realization.

However to live a life always “on guard”, mistrusting every new person you meet is very stressful. It is difficult to make new friends or even form strong business relationships with such a wary attitude.

Trusting Again Starts With Trusting Yourself

So how CAN we learn to relax and trust again, when we know (by experience) that not all people are trustworthy?

The key is to follow your heart your “gut feeling”. In fact what you are really doing is learning to trust yourself, and your own intuition.

Believe it or not, most of us don’t really trust ourselves and that is what can get us into trouble. When you don’t really trust yourself, then you don’t have the necessary strength to push against the tide, which is often necessary when we follow our hearts.

I know in my life, the worst decisions I have made were made against my own heart, and in “obedience” to others who I thought knew better than I did. Now I have come to the firm conclusion that where my life is involved, God and I are the only ones who really know what is best for me.

Once you are able to really trust yourself you will be able to relax more and everything else will become much easier and fall into place.

Deciding Who To Trust

There are some people we meet who are obviously not trustworthy, others we are just not sure about. But remember, we trust ourselves first, and then we can trust others as we sense it is ok.

The obviously not-to-be-trusted ones certainly need to be treated with a grain of salt, and not allowed into our “inner circle”. The more we can stay away from them, the better it is for all. Those we are not sure about, get to “prove themselves” before we allow them to step into our circle of trust.

Trust Is Earned

The bottom line is that all trust (and mistrust) is earned, whether the person involved earned it with us, or with others before meeting us and so created an “air” about themselves which our hearts or “gut feeling” picked up when we met them.

It is as the saying declares: their reputation goes before them.


My Checklist:

May All Your Relationships be Successful!