Building trust
The basis of most good relationships is trust. If you cannot trust the other person, then the relationship is never going to run very deep. Building trust takes time, especially when one or both parties have been hurt in the past.
Instructions
1. Be trustworthy in the little things. The other person needs to be able to trust you in the little things before he is going to trust you with the big things. If a person cannot trust you to show up on time or remember to do something that you promised to do, why should she trust you with something more important?
2. Keep the other person's confidence. What a person tells you in a relationship needs to stay in that relationship. If you are a gossip, then you are going to have a hard time building trust.
3. Share personal information about yourself. Relationships need to be two-way streets. Why should another person confide in you if you will not share personal information about yourself? If you want to build trust in a relationship, then you need to become vulnerable yourself.
4. Do things that are in the best interest of the other person. If you want to build trust, you need to make choices that are beneficial to the other person and the relationship. Although the other person's needs should not always come before your own, you should recognize and meet them as frequently as possible, while balancing them out with your own needs.
5. Spend time with the other person. In this era of text messaging and email, it can be easy to spend very little time with the people you love. If you want to build trust in a relationship, you need to spend time together. There is no replacement for spending face-to-face time on a regular basis.
6. Apologize when you make a mistake. Nothing shatters trust faster than hurting the other person and then refusing to take responsibility for a bad choice. Be willing to say "I'm sorry" when you make a bad choice that hurts the other person.
