“Learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult tasks.” ~Isaac Watts
Trying to plan for the future?
Good luck with that.
It’s a little like planning to buy clothes for an unborn child with an unknown gender; you might be half right at best.
There are too many unknowns out there right now to try and project where we’ll be in a year—on an individual or collective level.
Remember the days of five-year projections in business plans? Or even three-year projections?
Now, even a one-year set of assumptions is just that—assumptions.
And are they assumptions based on hopes or fears? Neither is likely to be accurate.
Nope, right now, in addition to the plethora of things we might consider and weigh while self-isolating—things like our health, education, political and business systems, and things like our own personal priorities—add trust to the list. Because without it, we will be miserable as we inch our way to whatever new normal awaits us.
Trust is the antidote to anxiety. In these uncertain times, it’s imperative to exercise your trust muscles before they atrophy.
Some confuse trust with faith: faith is a noun; trust is a verb. Think of it as bone and muscle; you can’t walk without either.
If you have all the information required to make a sound decision, it’s easy to trust. When everything’s in black and white—there’s enough money in the bank, your kids are asleep in their beds, there’s a schedule and a routine—it’s easy to trust.
It’s when those familiar routines are ripped from underneath our feet that we stumble.
So, choose to trust that the sun will emerge from behind the clouds. Choose to trust that you will emerge stronger and clearer. Choose to trust that the world will recover, and so will you.
It’s like choosing to focus on a healthy birth of a child whose gender and personality and preferences are unknown to you now, instead of focusing of how you’ll clothe him/her once born.
“Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.” ~Robert Tew
