How Trust Can Improve Your Life Satisfaction

in Living by Emily Snell

How Trust Can Improve Your Life Satisfaction

How Trust Can Improve Your Life Satisfaction

If you want to increase your health, wealth, business and personal success, science suggests building intentional trust relationships. Oh… you already knew this – well of course you did. We probably don’t need science to validate to us that the relationships we have are important in our life.

Before you read on, try this thought experiment with me… it won’t take you more than 30 seconds to do this.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen… seriously, give this a go.

Good! Now, for the next 30 seconds, make a list of the 10 most important relationships in your personal life… Ready… Go!

OK… now let’s do the same exercise but this time listing the top 10 important relationships you have in your business life… Ready… Go!

So how did you do? I’m wondering how many you got to in your personal life before you had a major pause… and whether that pause came well within the 30 seconds (somewhere between 12 and 20 seconds?).

What about your business list? How many did you get to list before you had to pause… and whether that pause came well within the 30 seconds?

I will share some observations about that thought experiment in a moment, but for now, let me return to the obvious importance of intentional trust relationships in our lives.

Having intentional and reciprocally-valued trust relationships is one of the most highly correlated indicators of reported life satisfaction, and also, not surprisingly, the research validates that relationships are important across all cultures

Intentional Trust Relationships and Life Satisfaction

I’m sure it’s not really surprising for you to discover that having intentional and reciprocally-valued trust relationships is one of the most highly correlated indicators of reported life satisfaction, and also, not surprisingly, the research validates that relationships are important across all cultures.

What I’m concerned about, however, is what I refer to as the global devaluing of trust.

When we get used to things in our life, for example, a new car, the view out of our window, or some new technological wizardry like television (some of us remember when it was like magic), as human beings we tend to devalue them. I refer to this as the I.U.T.I syndrome (I’m Used To It).

What I fear is that for many of us, we’re just getting used to the trust relationships we have, and because we’re not intentionally focused on them, we devalue their importance, and in so doing, we devalue the importance of trust.

On a global scale however, let’s consider for a moment what’s also been eroding the value of trust.

For many of us, we’re just getting used to the trust relationships we have, and because we’re not intentionally focused on them, we devalue their importance, and in so doing, we devalue the importance of trust.

Politicians devaluing trust: Could it be politicians making promises to get into office, and then reneging on those promises for a whole host of ‘justifiable’ reasons?

Corporate executives devaluing trust:  Could it be corporate executives extolling company mission statements and business values, only to be exposed for questionable, unethical or even illegal actions?

People in ‘trusted authority’ roles devaluing trust: Could it be the horrific crimes against the innocent by ‘trusted’ authority figures in our schools, charities, churches or community associations?

Divorce rates devaluing trust: Could it be the rising divorce rate pointing to broken trust in relationships that were entered into with all intention of ‘till death do us part’?

Professional Advisers and Salespeople devaluing trust: Could it be professional advisers and salespeople ‘selling’ their advice, products or services based on the commissions they will receive, rather than genuinely acting in what will best serve the clients’ personal situation, wants and needs?

The reality is, all of these examples, are now being highlighted not just via mainstream media, but by the millions of people around the world who now by default have become ‘amateur current affairs reporters’. And make no mistake about it, all of these ‘exposures’ are sucking the potential life-blood out of the value we place in our trusted relationships.

All of these ‘exposures’ are sucking the potential life-blood out of the value we place in our trusted relationships.

Back to the 30 second thought experiment

I have no doubt that if I allowed you more time now, with conscious and concentrated effort, you would be able to add to both lists you produced. But that’s not the purpose of the exercise.

The purpose of the exercise was to simply pattern interrupt you from the potential of the IUTI syndrome from negatively impacting and devaluing the trust you have in the relationships that matter in your personal and business life.

The foundation of the Intentionomics Trust Model is the intention you have for each of the people you impact in your various personal and business life roles. What do you want for the people in your most important intentional trust relationships – not what do you want from them?

The Intentionomics Trust Model provides a process for understanding that People Get Your Truth… over time, your intentions, your promises, your actions and your results will either promote you as someone people can trust, or expose you as untrustworthy.

Oh and just how long does it take for people to ‘get your truth’?

As it happens, Harvard University’s Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal outlined their research in the Psychological Bulletin that demonstrates across a wide range of situations, people pick up on your intentions as quick as just 30 seconds…

What do you want for the people in your most important intentional trust relationships – not what do you want from them?

So again, that old adage of the importance of being ‘present’ when you’re with someone else… really being intentionally, mindfully present with them, can make all the difference in the trust you will earn and in the value the other person will place on the relationship they have with you.

People Get Your Truth… and when you take trust for granted in any relationship, you potentially undervalue that trust, and place trust at risk.

And when trust is at risk… everything is at risk.

Over time, your intentions, your promises, your actions and your results will either promote you as someone people can trust, or expose you as untrustworthy.

About the Author

Emily Snell

Emily is a contributing marketing author at ChamberofCommerce.com where she regularly consults on content strategy and overall topic focus. Emily has spent the last 12 years helping hyper growth startups and well-known brands create content that positions products and services as the solution to a customer's problem.

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