What makes you believe the person and what they are saying?

Crucial relationships are built on trust.

Trust comes from knowing yourself, your boundaries, goals and values. When we trust ourselves it becomes easier to recognise it and confer our confidence in others.

It takes time to develop though and interestingly it is not so much concerned about the objective truth.

Imagine one person saying about the weather that it is sunny and another that it is raining. The question of trust is not about the weather itself, but how much you believe the person that made that statement.

We usually judge trust by two criteria.

The first is sincerity or subjective truthfulness which we can easily observe by the person’s behaviour. Are their actions consistent with their words?

The second is competence and their capability of carrying out what they promised. Have they got expertise in the field? Have they earned my respect?

But the most beautiful thing about trust is that it is not static. It is a continuous process of discovery and you have to work on it consistently.

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