ᴛʀᴜꜱᴛ

 Importance Of Trust

I googled the word "trust" earlier today. It was an enlightening encounter. Before encountering a single case of trust in the sense of belief in something or someone, I had read more than 20 pages of the results. There were numerous different financial trusts, organisations with "trust" in their titles, corporations eager to assist you in creating personal trusts, and various charitable trusts of every description, but nothing about putting your confidence in anything or someone. When I did locate a reference to trust in this common sense, it was in relation to mistrust; a psychiatrist was providing assistance to those whose trust had been violated through adultery or fraud!

Life is dependent on trust. If you have no faith in anything, life becomes unbearable—a perpetual struggle against anxiety and impending doom. Without trust, it's impossible to form relationships, much less healthy ones. It is crucial for intimacy. I believe that lack of trust causes more marriages to fail than genuine infidelity. The partner who lacks faith in the other will either drive them away or pressure them into a real or imagined act of betrayal.

Trust is crucial both at work and elsewhere. A distrusted organisation will be rife with scheming, anxiety, and neurotic suspicion. You'll have a difficult time at work if your supervisor doesn't trust you to complete the job correctly. She'll continuously be checking in on you, correcting "mistakes" and "oversights," and reminding you to do things. If coworkers don't trust one another, they'll need to spend more time keeping an eye on one other than really getting any work done. Machiavelli would blush over the office politics.

Cost-cutting efforts are ongoing for businesses. Consider all the extra work that is a direct result of the lack of trust. It is the sole reason audit departments exist. Because they don't trust their customers, contractors, or suppliers, businesses maintain extensive records. The perception that "you can't trust anyone these days" underlies probably more than half of all administrative work. Millions of dollars would be saved if even a small portion of such pointless labour could be eliminated.

This additional work is on top of the work we put on ourselves because we don't trust other people. the act of inspecting, carrying out, and accomplishing things on our own because we don't trust others to do them correctly—or at all. How much extra time would you suddenly find in your day if you travelled all that distance? How much of your work-related stress would disappear?

I'm continuously astounded by folks who complain about being overworked and under pressure yet refuse to take the one action that would most likely lighten their loads: having more faith in other people. They can't delegate since they don't trust others to carry out their instructions, thus they are forced to complete every important duty themselves. They show up to every meeting, no matter how pointless, since they don't trust people to keep their business private or make decisions they don't agree with. Because they can't be sure of what is said if they aren't present, they demand copies of every note, report, and email. They are always on edge and nervous, waiting for competitors or other departments to start some kind of secret plot to undermine their authority. Their lack of faith in everyone and everything is what is pushing them toward stress-related disease, not the pressure of the actual work itself. Is it surprising that they are on the verge of burnout?

The cycle of trust must be started by an act of faith by someone. It is pointless to wait for the other person to initiate contact. For you, they are waiting. To get things started, one must consciously appear as though they have no reservations about the wisdom, talent, integrity, or feeling of commitment of the other person. Will you sometimes be mistaken in your trust? No doubt. Because some individuals are unreliable and life isn't perfect. Will boosting your trustworthiness, however, result in a net benefit? Will it make your life less hectic and more enjoyable? I think so. You won't lose much by giving it a shot.

Trust has to start somewhere. Why not with you? Why not today? Why not right now?