Without trust everyday life is not possible. You take actions that are based on trust throughout your day. You trust that all of the critical components of your car are safe. The elevators you ride, the bridges you drive over, and the food that you eat, you trust to be safe. Relationships aren’t any different. Without trust any relationship worth having can’t exist. Below are nine suggestions for building up trust in your relationship:
1.) Make it a habit of being honest with people. If someone has an idea and asks for your opinion, then if you don’t agree, say so. Be constructive by stating your reasoning for your disagreement. This habit will carry over to your interactions with your partner.
2.) When you make a mistake, quickly own up to it and apologize. Refusing to take responsibility for hurting the other person is a quick recipe for destroying trust. The ability to say “I’m sorry” is a prerequisite tool for keeping a relationship intact.
3.) Be the rock of Gibraltar of your relationship. That means calmness under pressure. This quality marks the successful professional in the business world. This quality also resides in a partner that can be trusted in a relationship.
4.) Nothing should be too small when it comes to reliability and trustworthiness. Seeing that they can reliably trust you with the small things will bolster their confidence in trusting you with the important things. Be as good as your word and always show up on time. Keep those promises, no matter how small.
5.) In order to build trust, you must be transparent. This means not hiding things from your partner. Most people can tell if you are hiding something. This is even more true with your partner who knows you well. The secretive person that holds back makes all of us uncomfortable. It’s next to impossible to trust such a person.
6.) When you make a promise be sure to follow through. This applies to anything from showing up for lunch to helping out with a crisis. If you can’t deliver then don’t make the promise. Each missed promise no matter how small creates some hurt feelings. These hurt feelings build up and erode your partner’s trust in you.
7.) Never share other people’s confidences with your partner. Doing so will cause your partner to wonder if you are sharing personal information about her to your friends. This is an issue about character. Never violate anyone’s confidence.
Developing trust requires work. But it is the foundation of any relationship and must be done.
You must log in to post a comment.