Will Bridges

Generally, I trust everyone till they give me evidence that they cannot be trusted. A lot of people say ‘trust no one’ and make people earn your trust. But, I make people earn my mistrust. I have a problem with ‘trust no one’ because it gives the impression that most people are bad and out to get you. If you believe that way I think you draw those types of people to you. Everyone should be innocent till proven guilty. Even when people break my trust I tend to look at their circumstances closely. You can only expect a person to act a certain way given their circumstances don’t change drastically. Given the wrong circumstances even a good man can do evil things. There are no evil people but evil actions are widespread. You’re good could be my evil and my evil could be your good. Life is relative that way.

I do have a certain level of assumptions that the people I associate with will act a certain way. However, I don’t expect those people to always act like that and when they don’t act the way I assume they will I closely look at their circumstances and ask myself “Would I act that way given those circumstances were upon me?”. If the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ then I’m understanding but I may tell them I am displeased. However, if the answer is ‘no’ I will let them know I wouldn’t act like that towards them and don’t want them to act like that towards me. I believe this way gives me more empathy and allows me to be very diplomatic. It’s problematic to have solid expectations of people because if you know them long enough they will let you down and you will find yourself very disappointed. If you act on that disappointment without thinking about being in that person’s place then you could lose some very good friends, allies and supporters.

It can be difficult to have faith that most people are actually kind hearted and well intentioned but I’ve seen for the most part that is true. Others will help you if you are willing to help them without question. Have a little faith and a positive outlook and you will draw others in your life that have faith in you and have that same positive outlook. If you are always looking for what you can get out of people then people will do the same to you and you will always come up hungry, without fulfillment and short handed.