95: What Does Trust Mean When It Comes to Preparedness?

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What Does Trust Mean When It Relates to Preparedness?

Trust is both earned and given, and it is an integral part of how we approach the world and our interactions. That is especially true during times of crisis. Because it is so essential, in this episode, I break down and define the levels of trust we have in others. It's our level of trust in others that is the foundation of our interactions and expectations.

It's the levels of trust that we put into others that we can segment into four groups or ranks. What does trust mean in each of these groups?

Strangers

When we first meet a person, we have not interacted with the person to make a solid judgment on the value and reliability they bring to our lives. Therefore we either overtly or covertly interview them to determine if their values and mindset align with ours individually and as a group, establishing our baseline with the wild card.

During our interview process, we also begin to silo people by their strengths, weaknesses, and how they impact ourselves and the group. Some things to look for in a person beyond shared values are their levels of integrity, competency, accountability, and concern for others. As we begin to trust strangers more, they become viewed with higher regard of respect and acceptance within our family unit.

Acquaintances

Acquaintances are the people we don't know well but who have passed beyond the level of being a stranger on one level or another. Based on how we are introduced, some people may bypass the stranger category and move straight into the acquaintance category.

Acquaintances can be looked at as the person who is making the right decisions, giving more than they are taking, and trying to make their world a better place. And as acquaintances are a step above strangers, they are still looked upon with some reservations, which requires more significant work, oversight, etc., for others. As acquaintances prove themselves, they can progress into the ranks of the dependables.

The Dependables

The dependables are people in whom we have confidence. Confidence is the belief that we put in someone based upon past interaction, performance, and so on, that they will do what we feel is right. Confidence is necessary because it's the people with whom we have confidence, which we and others are more likely to follow and listen to. People we have confidence in often become leaders. And it's during difficult times that our level of confidence in others must be as stable as possible.

That's because if we don't have confidence in someone, it will likely cause problems within the dynamics of the group. Arguments can arise, such as others shouldering more responsibility, work, etc. People we have confidence in require very little oversight to do what is right, what is needed, and in general, do positive things. As people gain our confidence, they then move up our mental ranking system to become trusted agents in our lives.

The Trusted

People we “trust” are the people who we put our faith and belief into. Trusting someone means that we accept them, their strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between. Because, in our mind and heart, they have proven themselves to be worthy of our trust. People won't move up our internal rankings unless their values, integrity, competency, accountability, and concern for others align with ours.

This level of trust is not blind trust, which is also not confidence. This level of trust is based upon building a relationship where you know with almost 100% certainty how a person will behave and respond to difficult times.

The Trusted are our fire-and-forget missiles. They are the people who, in a time of crisis, we can depend on. Not depend on to be successful, because that's never guaranteed. They are people we can rely on to do what is right when doing right is tricky.

And we can depend upon them to be honest with themselves and us. That way, we can trust what they say regardless of whether it's good or bad. That doesn't mean they don't screw up. It means that in our minds, they own their screw-ups and try to move on from them. With all of that, the next hurdle is to put it all together and reap the rewards.

The Bottom Line on What Does Trust Mean

Our personal family units are made up of people from all different walks of life, experiences, and beliefs. It's those differences in life, knowledge, and beliefs that make our family unit better. It makes a group more comprehensive in its abilities and more unified in purpose. With that, we must recognize where we are in the mind of others. We must allow others to grow and rise through the ranks in our own lives.

Just like many people will not entirely trust you, you will not whole-heartedly trust many people. And that's okay because trust is not something we should easily give. And it's by understanding how we relate to one another that we can better hedge our bets towards success than setting ourselves up for failure.

In the end, we can not control the actions and beliefs of others. What we can do, though, is understand that we need others in our lives, especially during difficult times. It's up to us whether we make our world, our family unit, a place where we encourage others to rise to the occasion. And one way we do that is by understanding where that person falls within our mindset of trust and acceptance.

Stay safe,