There are two approaches to trust. You are trusting until a person proves to be untrustworthy. You are not trusting until a person proves to be trustworthy. In both methods, you are eventually establishing belief in another fallible human being.
When you are in the initial stages of bonding with someone, and before making any commitments, you need to have concrete evidence that the person is safe, reliable, and honest. You should give attention to how the person functions in other aspects of their life regarding these traits. Don’t rely solely on your relational interactions. Take the time to understand the motivation behind their choices.
Trust is a vital ingredient for any relationship, especially a romantic one. I know some persons mostly equate trust with “will he/she cheat on me?” but you should focus on the fact that you will be sharing a part of yourself with this individual and you need to know deep within yourself that you will not be betrayed or violated.
Some of us in our quest to form a relationship skip over the time required to establish adequate trust. I have witnessed this in some of the relationships of my friends, and it has proven to be disastrous.
You want to take all of the time necessary to build sufficient trust with that special someone. However, over the course of your relationship, you also need to continue to monitor if that special someone still deserves your trust.
QUESTION(s)
What is your approach to trust?
