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TRUST - TOTAL CONFIDENCE
Marian Baltazar
Class of 1980, University of the Philippines College of Manila
AB Political Science
Trust is defined as having total confidence with the integrity, ability or character of a person or thing. It is also a
noble but a difficult virtue that mankind could have. There are many times people fail to be trusted. Actually, it
is the most important and respected virtue that one can have in life. Trust in one's friend, a relative, a neighbor
and almost always this is often reciprocated. Trusting someone is having faith in them, knowing that this
person will see you through in whatever you are experiencing in life.
In any kind of relationship, trust is essential and a basic requirement. It is this crucial thing that develops and
nurtures that relationship, which eventually make us true friends. When you trust someone, you are confident
that this person is trustworthy and dependable. You also trust a person for the sole reason that you have faith
on that person. You do believe that he or she will always be thinking to the best of your interest.
When we speak of trust, we refer to both the emotional and logical act of a person. In the emotional aspect,
we talk or rather expose our vulnerabilities to people, that is we are being transparent to them. We have the
thinking that if we do expose ourselves, we believe that the people around us will not take advantage of our
openness. We trust people because they are trustworthy and because we simply feel it as every human being
do. Some other emotions that can actually be associated with trust are: friendship, companionship, agreement,
love, relaxation and comfort.
Trust is synonymous to reliance, dependence and faith to name a few. I guess it also means being transparent
to people meaning you are not afraid to show your true self and true color. Apparently, it exposes our self in
such a way that at times they take advantage of our vulnerability too. Take for instance, my being confident in
telling a person whatever my problems are at work, that person might take it against me and may use it to
further his own career at my expense. Therefore we see trust here as allowing people to take advantage of
your vulnerabilities but at the same time expecting that they will not really do this to you.
In general, trust is having that total confidence and believing that people around you will act accordingly or will
act correctly. This is the sole reason why we are able to hand over our children to be under the care of the
teachers, give our vote to the politician we believe will rule justly, sit back and relax while the pilot flies the
plane, invest and save our money in the bank, share the roads with other motorists and many more! We readily
do all these things for we believe that others involved share our values too. Henceforth, we know pretty well
that these people will act responsibly and look after our interests. Trust allows us to share responsibilities and
information for our mutual benefits.
I don't really think we can live without some degree of trust. This is attributed to the fact that we live complex
lives and relationships that will make it hard to control and monitor completely. We could never succeed in
our life if no one will trust us. People need to believe in us, have confidence in us and depend on us too. So, let
us try and do all our best to be a trustworthy person. It will always be that degree of trust that will be
commensurate so that they will have total confidence in everything we do.
Questions for discussion:
1. Are you a dependable and trustworthy person? How can you support your answer?
2. Are you confident enough that people you mingle with trust you?
3. Can you totally be trusted and believed by people around you?
4. How could you prove your trustworthiness to other people?
5. Do you believe that trust is crucial to be a person of integrity?