“I know who I am, I know what I believe, and that’s all I need to know.” Will Smith.
Trust is the foundation of life. It is the foundation for humanity. Where you have trust, you have synchronicity, harmony, flourishment. From business development, working cultures & effective leadership to relationships with friends and family, personal development and spiritual growth – the success of each and any one of these is always underpinned by one common denominator: trust.
If you search ‘trust’ on the big world wide web you’ll find a lot of talks and articles on how we trust others more effectively, and you may also find meditations on trusting the universe, and trusting in life…but what about how we trust ourselves? There is only one person that will be with you from the day you are born. And that person, is you.
When trust is low
What’s interesting is that, despite this, there are so many people out there who simply do not give themselves the level of trust that they really deserve. And the reality is, when you are low on self-trust, you spend your life in a state of anxiety; constantly waiting for things to go wrong, and discounting your own abilities to deal with it.
There is no trust in you here, no trust that everything will work out fine, no trust that you will deal with whatever comes up in your own way. That’s a beautiful medley of stress releasing hormones you are producing right there. Beautifully unnecessary in fact.
It is also exactly this, that leads wonderful human beings into patterns of people pleasing and feeling unsure about their own opinions. It is exactly this, that also leads wonderful humans to doubt themselves, questioning whether their opinion is right, not trusting in their own ability to make a decision, and subsequently looking to others for answers.
Needless to say, we need to do something different. We need to get into these brains of ours and tidy up those old, unhelpful thought patterns – let’s clear those dusty old cobwebs away.
Brush those cobwebs away
First of all, you want to think about your catchphrases. What, for you, are the things you commonly say that will tell your brain, you don’t trust yourself? Auto-piloting to the opinions and convictions of others is a sure-fire sign your self-trust needs some work. Chances you may also be familiar with some of the following:
“I’m not sure I’ve done this right”
“I don’t want to show this to other people in case I am wrong”
“I can’t make a decision on this…”
“What if….something terrible happens?”
If you have even more than the above – well done. You’re doing a stirling job of undermining all your wonderful qualities 😉
You choose
Write at least half a page, ideally a full page or more, on what life is like when you have this innate sense of trust in who you are. This inner knowing that whatever you do, whatever you say, it’ll be just what is needed in that moment. Don’t be afraid to really go to town, you want Beyonce levels of confidence here. Or should I say Barack Obama (more credible right?).
Really write down how that inner trust and knowing manifests into all areas – from the way you hold yourself, to the words that you speak, the places you go. Really get into the detail of it. We like the nitty gritty here.
When you’ve done this, you have a manifesto for your future. Read this every morning and connect with what it feels like to operate from THIS place. And when you notice those old, pesky catchphrases cropping up; brush them off and remind yourself of this wonderful alternative life you have created. Keep doing that my friends and I can guarantee life will change.
In the words of Jim Morrisson…break on through to the other side
What you’ll find is that life becomes pretty awesome. And ultimately, if you’re brain has the ability to make this up in your head, it has the ability to run that shiz for real. You totally got this.