Trust, the Antidote to Feeling Insecure

antidote bouteille noireAlthough Barack Obama claimed in his January 25th 2011 State of the Union Speech that the worst of the recession is over, many people are still struggling to recover from the worst financial downturn in several generations and suffering from a feeling of insecurity, having found themselves on the sidelines these past couple of years.

How does someone feel after having lost everything he/she worked hard for years to achieve? While the range of emotions we might experience will be closer to anger and fear than joy and happiness, the best way to stay motivated is to manage to keep trust in stock.

We can deny the uncomfortable situation, resist change, go on with life as nothing is happening and deal with the consequences later. Or we can rise to the occasion and accept the reality of change. Each crisis is an opportunity to undertake a powerful journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

As the writer John Gardner once wrote, “Life isn’t a train ride where you choose your destination, pay your fare and settle back for a nap. It’s a cycle ride over uncertain terrain with you in the driver seat, constantly correcting your balance and determining the direction of progress.”

Our ability to successfully navigate through insecurity depends on many factors, the most important being trust. When we feel that our world is going haywire, our trust in ourselves is being heavily solicited. But to be able to really leverage trust, we need to reassess our understanding of what trust is. Without trust in ourselves, today’s challenges will be close to impossible to overcome

The dictionary defines trust as having confidence in the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something. In common usage, the word trust refers to relying on someone or something for a future action.

But what do we mean by trust and how can trust help us overcome life’s challenges?

The first type of trust we use in our daily lives is called Transactional Trust. It is based on mutual self-interest and involves acting according to a common agreement.

This type of trust is the backbone of our personal and professional lives. For example, every company’s success is dependent on how much it can trust its employees and to what extent its employees trust its management.

The second type of trust, Inner Trust, is not based on the future performance of another but rather upon how we can live in the present moment and not worry about the outcome.

It is about trusting our ability to find our way through life’s challenges even when we are feeling confused and insecure. We experience inner trust when we live in our own hearts and minds right now without the interference of the past or the future. Inner trust is about knowing that life will unfold the way it supposed to and being at peace with the result.

We start this journey by reconciling both transactional and inner trust within our lives, by clarifying what is important to us, be it our family, our health, the purpose of our lives and the kind of life we want to live, and having faith in our inner self to orient us toward the right direction.

Once we do that, we can ride the waves of uncertainty with more confidence in ourselves and our ability to overcome the temporary roadblocks the global economic crisis has created.

During these times of insecurity, it would be useful to remember to rely more on trust as the antidote to feeling insecure.

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