Discover the power of journaling on trust to mine inner wisdom.
"What happens to us is not as important as the meaning we assign to it. Journaling helps sort this out."
— Michael Hyatt
I’ve been grappling with trust.
I’ve always been very trusting — some say, too trusting.
But what does that mean?
What is trust and how do you know if you have too much or too little or just the right amount?
In my annual journaling practice of reviewing and completing my year, and then creating the coming year, I took my biggest challenges and mined them for the gold inside.
Every challenge has precious lessons buried within.
In fact, our challenges are the precursors to our expansion, and 2024 had no shortage of opportunities to grow.
The third has been the most elusive.
I started with the idea that I had to be more careful about who I trust.
But that still leaves me at the effect of other people’s actions, afraid of consequences I can’t anticipate or control.
“Trust is the antidote that overcomes fear - and fear is the greatest inhibitor of all….”
— Peter Drucker
It’s not that there’s no value in being discerning, but the real substance in extracting life lessons from unwanted circumstances isn’t about limiting behaviour but about expanding consciousness.
For me, trust has always been tied to emotion.
A betrayal of trust, therefore, has caused me much pain and suffering.
But according to the dictionary, trust is about, "a person on whom or thing on which one relies."
If someone breaks a trust, it means that they were not reliable.
Much like my insight about attacks, the freedom around the issue of trust lies in the understanding that someone else’s actions are not personal.
In other words, they don’t mean anything about us.
If we grant trust to someone and they betray it, they have either intentionally abused that trust or they have made a mistake.
Either way, their actions are a reflection of them, not us.
Our suffering over other people’s words and deeds is not caused by what they say or do, but by what we make it mean about ourselves.
How could I be so naive??
That was so stupid of me!
I feel foolish, exposed, embarrassed, etc.
The pain of disappointment is real, and can quickly heal as we accept what is so.
But suffering is optional.
When our identities hang onto our interpretation of what happened as meaning something personal, reflecting some shortcoming in us, we suffer.
And that stays with us like a wound we keep picking at.
Trust is a gift that we grant to others.
Most people say trust is earned, but that is only the result of criteria upon which we base our decision to grant it.
Once it is given, it can be honoured or betrayed — neither of which are a reflection on us.
As you grant your trust to people, you will learn who they are.
In your response to what they do with it, you will learn who you are.
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
— Ernest Hemingway
Every outcome is an opportunity to grow.
We develop discernment not by pre-judging, but by practicing.
And the more we practice, the better we know others and ourselves.
That is where personal power lies.
If we allow other people’s actions to change who we are, we lose our unique life spark and succumb to an ever-dimming version of who we are and our abundant possibilities.
“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible."
Anton Chekhov
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Journaling has been the most powerful tool for self-reflection and growth in my life.
I will be teaching people my unique method for mining inner wisdom in my upcoming course, The Power of Journaling.
Starting Saturday, March 1, 2025 @ noon EST
Rewrite your story.
Reprogram your life.
Spaces are limited.
Questions are welcome.
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