Trust can be tricky for many of us, myself included. It can be scary, seem naïve, and feel vulnerable. We often spend a lot of time and energy shielding ourselves from failure, being taken advantage of, or having our trust violated. What are we really protecting ourselves from?
As someone said to me many years ago, “Mike you’re living your life as though you’re trying to survive it. You have to remember, no one ever has.”
It takes courage for us to trust others, ourselves, and life itself. Trust is essential to all of our relationships, the teams, groups, and communities we’re a part of, and for us to create success and fulfillment at work and in life.
What if we expanded our capacity for trust? What if we granted trust with ease, instead of demanding that people (including ourselves) and life earn our trust.
In a recent episode of my Bring Your Whole Self to Work podcast, we discuss this phenomenon and talk about both the challenges we face with respect to trust, and also some specific things we can do to trust ourselves, others, and life more easily.
Trust is a generating energy – when we come from a place of trust, we are more likely to have the types of experiences, outcomes, and relationships we want. It’s a leap of faith…just like most important things in life.
How easy or difficult is it for you to trust? Share your thoughts, feelings, and insights about this below.
In regards to the concept and need for trust I want to say that I agree it is critical to be able to trust despite the sense of vulnerabilty. It is however particularly challenging when there is a traumatic betrayal in a relationship…when you learn that the person you have been with for almost 30 years, is a criminal of the worse kind. When you lose everything that you have worked for and have to start your life all over again in your 60’s.
Everything is relative, and one has to dig deep to hang on to those things one can still be grateful for. If I cannot trust again then I just allow what happened to continue to steal my personal power. So I have decided that I will not be a victim to what happened and instead will remain open to life but with a greater conscious awareness of not only the behaviour of others but to my own behaviour of response.
There is a comment in an old movie I saw as a kid called “Oh Shanado” starring Jimmy Stewart.
His character at one point says, “If we don’t try, we don’t do. If we don’t do, then what are we doing on this earth?” So, my mantra is, “Keep moving, keep living”.
Thank you for your inspiration Mike. I hope you personally see this comment.
Bren Upson, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Bren – thank you for your comment and your authenticity. I appreciate your perspective and send you blessings as you work on healing from your trauma and betrayal. Life is often filled with pain and it can be very challenging for us to regain trust in others and ourselves. It is not easy work, for sure. I honor you for your process.