TO TRUST MEANS TO BE TRANSPARENT.

My most recent post was about finally healing once and for all. I needed to address a few issues before moving forward in my life and by forward, I mean growth! You can’t grow with deadly surroundings. I expressed my feelings as they were geared towards my childhood traumas and because of this, I’m most definitely free. Some may wonder how after one blog post can I truly be healed and my response is, it didn’t take one post. It took many years to get myself together especially since I decided to no longer be broken. Plus, healing doesn’t happen overnight. My reasons for being transparent stems from two things: one being, I refuse to lie to myself and two, I want you all to feel comfortable to share your feelings with me. I am fully aware that opening up can be rough, but I just push through it. I’m curious to know how that’s been working for you. So far so good right?

Perfect. Today's post is about transparency. I mention this quite often because it's imperative we begin owning our shit. And by shit I'm referring to the role we play in our traumas, our success, our relationships- our lives. It's so easy for us to shy away from the truth because we don't want to deal with it. To be transparent is to be candid. You're giving yourself permission to be open about anything you feel to share. We’re often afraid to be transparent because then that means we are allowing outsiders into our space. Granted. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m an “open book” but don’t ask too many questions. I instantly become uncomfortable. Am I weird for that?

I didn’t think so. Now that we have an understanding of what to be transparent means, let’s discuss trust. In a scholar way, we can all agree trust or to trust means to have a firm belief in someone or something who shows acts of reliability, honesty, and strength. Sounds easy right? Sounds like another task you can add to your daily calendar. Ok great! However, we never focus on ways to establish trust unless our trust has been demolished or tampered with. Here’s the thing, trust means you decided to rely on someone else to do the right thing. You made the conscious decision to accept this person’s integrity and strength, meaning you were comfortable with putting yourself on the line because you believe in this person. Talk about sense of safety within the equation. But what happens when this person fails you? Where does your trust go? Now before you roll your eyes and decide to leave this post, just trust where I’m going ok!

Your trust weakens for this person. Their words are short lived and well their actions are no longer taken into consideration, but you continue allowing them to be your deciding factor. Because you believe they will earn your trust back! But they never really do. If we’re being honest.

Now, how does trust and transparency connect? Ok, to be transparent means you are open to owning your position and to trust means you are believing in someone else’s position. When one falls short, the other has no choice but to hold its weight and usually, the results are terrible. It’s like playing on the seasaw by yourself. I say all of this to say, give your self permission to feel

In the words of Jack Welch, ”Trust happens when leaders are transparent”.