In each of our lives, there will be people who let us down when we least expect it. Whether it’s friends, family or a significant other, or perhaps if we are unlucky we might experience all three. Not all people are good and that is the simple harsh reality. The difficult part is how to decipher the good from the bad when it comes to who you can trust.
There will always be a million and one reasons to believe the worst in someone. For every situation, there are endless “what ifs” that can be applied and most of them don’t end well. You may have heard something about them or caught them at a bad time; maybe you just got a bad vibe or first impression from them.
On the other hand, maybe you are assuming the worst in someone because you have been hurt before. After any kind of betrayal or heartbreak, it can be difficult to start trusting in people again. It becomes our immediate reaction to put our backs up against the wall and flinch at any sign of intimacy.
After some time, being the kind of person who couldn’t trust anyone at all because I trusted the wrong person one time, I decided that needed to change. I no longer want to be the person who misses out on life just because one person made me start to fear the potential pain that some people may cause.
No one deserves to not be believed in until they give you a reason to think that way. Trust your gut and your heart, not your mind. If they aren’t your kind of person, that’s fine! If you believed in them once and they broke that trust, leave them behind. What is important is that you don’t write someone off before you’ve given them a chance. Don’t distance yourself from the world because one person made you lose faith in everyone else.
I am never going to stop believing in the good in people because there will always be people worth taking risks for. People come all in different shapes and sizes and are filled with infinite forms of personalities. If you open yourself up to the possibility of knowing a person you never know how your life can change. Maybe they will become a best friend, or maybe through you, they will meet someone and fall in love.
Think about every significant person in your life right now. How did you meet them? Where did you meet them? Most importantly, if that exact situation happened to you now, would you let them in the way you did then?
Don’t deny the opportunity to create a friendship or relationship just because you’ve started to lose faith in the world. They aren’t the ones who brought that on, your past was. That fear your past created will only haunt you if you let it. Love yourself enough to let go of that fear and create new and amazing opportunities. Maybe you will get hurt again, but what if you don’t? People are always worth it.
Featured image via José Luis Photographer on Pexels
