Trust

If you're like many business owners at the moment, you probably feel like a small boat on very choppy waters. It seems everyone has an agenda: your clients, your family, the government, the media…. We are being pulled mentally and emotionally from pillar to post and it’s really tricky to find steadiness or to secure any kind of anchor point.

Today’s post is about trust (thank you, George Swift, for your continued wisdom).  

Most of us have been through times of uncertainty before, probably starting when we were very young. We develop mechanisms for helping us navigate through these turbulent times and often we determine that control is the antidote to uncertainty, and so we do our best to control our environment. We get pretty good at it, or so we think, but it’s actually the illusion or sense of control that we feel helps us, and not actual control, which is virtually impossible. 

Fast forward to when we’re perfectly intelligent adults running our business-facing uncertain times, and we revert back to our default settings of trying to control our environment. We quickly realise this is impossible and become anxious, stressed, and depressed. How the bloody hell do you control your unruly pre-teen who’s bored out of her mind and missing her friends, who are also now homeschooling? How do you control the panic amongst your clients and the impact their clients’ panic is having on them? How do you control your emotions when we are being bombarded on a daily basis with catastrophising news? The truth? You can’t! So what’s the answer?

Control was never the solution. We learned it, and it helped for a while, or at least made us feel like it helped, but it’s not where we need to spend our energy. What we need to do is trust. WTF? Yep, trust. 

There are three things we need to trust in:

1. We need to trust ourselves – we have come this far and we are still here, we are still alive, we survived. If you look back you survived some pretty big things in your life and you are OK. You will get through this too. You are resourceful, clever, creative and way more powerful than you think. 
2. We need to trust humanity – whilst situations like this often bring out the worst in human behaviour, on the whole humanity is pretty awesome. We do some incredible things and pull together in times of great need. We are kind, considerate, loving and we do generally care about our fellow man. Trust in the over-arching intentions of humanity.
3. We need to trust in something greater than us – now if you’re religious (and it matters not to me which religion you are), this is generally pretty straight forward, but if you’re not thinking about what you can believe in. Perhaps you’re spiritual or believe in the power of nature, or quantum physics, or astrology. Either way, find something that is way bigger than you and trust in that.

This 3-way trust triangle provides the foundations for tackling uncertainty and if you practice trusting in these on a daily basis you will find you’re more able to let go, to be calm in times of uncertainty, and the anxiety, stress, and fears will reduce. 

In case you were in any doubt, I am a self-confessed control freak and have been in both camps. I’d love to say I’m all trust now and never try to control my environment but that would be a gigantic lie. It’s a work in progress but I can attest to the impact trust has on my everyday experience of life and it’s way better. 

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

About the author, Tracey Miller

Tracey Miller is an expert in helping ambitious business owners grow, personally and professionally. 

Founder of BBB Success Groups, she creates incredible environments that find the perfect balance between nurture and support and kicking you up the arse to achieve your goals and dreams. 

Book a discovery call here

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––