Why Trust is Worth It

I have watched the video below a handful of times over the past year. It brings up so many good points. 

Trust is defined as this:

: to believe that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc. : to have confidence in (someone or something)
: to believe that something is true or correct

: to hope or expect that something is true or will happen

For some reason I feel like...

: Terrifying

...should be added to list above.  :)

Every single person on this planet has had their trust tested. For some, that is a continuous lesson throughout their life.

In some ways, I feel like trust is the undercurrent of all of life. In practically every moment, we are asked to trust. We trust our feet to carry us where we need to go. We trust our vehicles to get us from point A to point B, safely. We trust airplanes and buses and boats. We trust the food that is placed before us, the water we put in our bodies. We trust our business partners, our friends, our family. We have to trust ourselves. And trust in life itself.

We learn who can be trusted... and who can't be trusted. And even some of those who can't be trusted, we continue to try to trust them again and again and again... sometimes. 

But what a precarious balance we have to find with someone. It's like this slow unfolding of ourselves. We have so many different types of relationships in our day to day lives. Who are the lucky ones that we actually let way in? I've had a lot of conversations regarding this topic, because as some of you know, I'm not one for small talk. I like to get to know someone, the real person behind the "Oh, isn't this weather great" front we all have to wear around. A lot of these conversations have a very similar theme. Most people feel that they have to put up a front when getting to know someone. "If I wear my heart on my sleeve, I will get hurt." "Someone needs to earn my trust. I'm not going to give it to them willingly. I don't want to be hurt."  "It's safer to keep my guard up for awhile until I really get to know someone. Then I might let it down, one brick at a time."

I have to start by saying, I totally understand why people feel this way. I have definitely been through the Hard Knocks my fair share of times. And yet... something about this doesn't make sense to me. If everyone is walking around with their guard up, expecting everyone to hurt them... then how is anyone getting to know anyone?  I think each new moment with someone, whether we've known them 10 minutes or 10 years, is an opportunity for us to decide to be open. To trust.  It is a constant choice we get to make. There are absolutely no guarantees in life about not getting hurt by someone. Even if you have known the person for 10 years, the possibility of things shifting is always there.

I guess I'm kind of a weirdo. I think I approach relationships, of all natures, knowing that the chances of feelings getting "all shook up" are about 100%. If trust is established quickly, and I am me from the get go, well then when things get all shaky, we can approach the topic and move through it because a solid foundation of authenticity has been laid. And if things just can't be worked through, because sometimes that is life's lesson as well, then at the end of the relationship (be it business, friendship, romantic, ect), the interaction will have at least been real. It will have been full of feelings and the juiciness of life.

There is something spectacular when you are standing at the precipice of Something in Life and you look to the person next to you and say, "I'll jump, if you jump."   Or you are about to make a big change in your life and you look to Life and say "I'll jump, if you jump".     Is that a terrifying place?? Absolutely!

But I guess that's my answer to Why Trust is Worth It..... because that is where life is Fully Lived.