Unique Qualities That Make A Person Trustworthy

Trust and loyalty is an essential part of every strong relationship out there. If you’re wondering how you can be a trustworthy person, then, just remember the 5 traits that will be listed below.

We’ve all experienced people in our lives that are really unreliable, untrustworthy, dishonest and fly-by-night.

It could have been an ex, an old friend, or someone you’ve worked with or someone you still relate with one way or the other.

As we get older, wiser and more cautious of our surrounding, many get better at weeding those set of people out of their lives.

The result of this intentional or not really intentional form of soughting is the ability to focus our attention on healthier relationships, which bring us happiness leading to more productivity in our lives and those around us.

Read: How To Tell If You Are Nurturing Positive Relationships

Yet, you can do as much weeding as possible but still be left with an untrustworthy person plaguing your positivity and growth – and that is YOU, yes you yourself.

Perhaps you want to admit it or not, you aren’t as trustworthy as you think, and in any relationship, be that with a significant other, family member(s), friend(s), boss or co-worker, being trustworthy can be one of most important values to uphold. And for me, it sure is.

Read: 25 Ways To Avoid Unfaithfulness In Your Relationship

How to be more trustworthy

While becoming a trustworthy person isn’t something that can happen at once, there are a few things that you can start doing differently in order to develop more trustworthy qualities. And soon, you’ll truly see yourself as a much more trustworthy and dependable person you’ve always wanted to be.

1. Keep a promise/secret, no matter how minute.

It is unfortunate that most people fail to keep to their word. They fail to realize that holding on to your side of a bargain is important in building trust. No matter how small or tiny or as little as a mustard seed you perceive the promise to be, you must honor it.

If you promised you would watch a friend’s game, ensure to do so. Even if it means two hours of possibly the most boring game or time ever, just do it because you made a promise. It’s different from saying I’ll try. Dear, you made commitment already with your words. You just have to honor it. Maybe you should order a beer, eat some nuts, popcorn, etc and make the most of it. It might mean more to that person than you could ever understand.  Your presence alone could make the difference in this persons’ life and you might be the cause of their win.

In secret keeping, lot of people deal with tough stuff in their lives and often times, they don’t have enough decent relationships to feel secure to share what they are going through. So if someone confides in you, please and please don’t expose them for any careless reason unless it is truly bad for their well-being, or life threatening and a third party needs to be involved.

Secure the promise, and sit on the information they’ve shared with you like gold. They will respect you immensely and will forever be grateful if you don’t go start spreading information that they’ve specifically asked you not to. If you do, that will be highly irresponsible of you.

Most times, people just need to entrust things with other people, to feel connected. To be more trustworthy, be the reliable and honest person that can keep a secret safe.

2. Have integrity/ moral principles.

Trustworthiness and positive moral principles go hand in hand. Note that trustworthy people hold strong moral principles, and they stand by them no matter what. If you are constantly wavering on what values you deem important, and therefore bounce all over the place, like bouncing castle, it definitely translates into dishonesty and unreliability. In fact, the weather is more reliable than you are.

For example, if loyalty is an essential moral that you find extremely important in a person, then you must be loyal in your own actions. Basically, you must practice what you preach. That is the fact about being trustworthy. You must live by example.

Read: How To Stop Nagging And Communicate Better

3. Don’t gossip.

This is straightforward, if you want to be a more trustworthy person, stop talking poorly behind people’s backs. Just stop it. It is terribly bad. Whatever you cannot say in front of a person, don’t go behind them and start talking sh*t.

Guess you aren’t in high school anymore, if you have a concern or an issue with someone, be mature enough to address them face-to-face and stop that sh*tty attitude.

If it seems so insignificant that you wouldn’t want to speak to them about it directly, then you probably shouldn’t even be talking about it in the first place, your sense didn’t tell you so right?

Gossiping isn’t just speaking poorly about people. It’s generally chatting about useless information. It doesn’t matter how many diets a co-worker has tried and failed. That should not be a topic of conversation over lunch with someone else. Truthfully, your co-worker’s eating habits are none of your business. Are they?

Instead, try discussing something intelligent, something important to you or something that could make a difference in our world. Rather than gossiping, why not have a discussion about why the government should invest in renewable energy, (going green to help the earth renew) and on social programs.

4. Be consistent.

With reference to #1, do exactly what you say you are going to do. It sounds so simple, but some people still cannot seem to follow through on their word. It is just unfortunate that people say a thing while they are 100% sure they aren’t following through with what they are saying.

Read: 9 Subtle Signs He Truly Trusts Her

I have a friend that constantly makes plans with me and breaks them a few days or hours to the agreed date, day or time, or just never follows up. He won’t call or text to give flimsy excuses. I’ve been promised numerous nights out to Chinese restaurants, and trips to the beach that we have never actually succeeded in doing. If you ask me why, I guess you know the answer already.

It is very annoying to constantly have to second-guess if the date will actually happen or not. You’re so not consistent and no one can ever trust you with anything. Not even with time because I will double check to be sure you said the right time.

Just imagine how frustrating it is. It would be much easier if he did what he said he was going to do in the first place. In order to be trustworthy you need to do what you say, and be reliable or consistent. If you have something come up, be quick to let the other person know. Moreover, it should not be every time you make plans with someone that something else will come up. With this, your friend or whoever you make plans with and have a change of mind, they won’t feel betrayed.

5. Be honest.

This is telling the truth always. Though, telling the truth, and being frank, is at times, difficult to do. But they are essential if you want to be a more trustworthy person.

A person that withholds information, or doesn’t say how they truly feel makes it difficult for people to trust and understand them.

A friend of mine would never actually tell me how she was feeling, or communicate her needs to me. It was extremely challenging that I could never count on her to just be honest and let me know what was going on inside her head and heart.

Her refusal to be honest with me led me to feel like she was betraying me in some ways. Her dishonesty was hurtful and I didn’t find her to be trustworthy. I second-guessed her intentions, and therefore, it complicated our friendship.

Sometimes the truth hurts, but if you honestly communicate with people, you are seen as more trustworthy because a person can feel confident that you aren’t withholding something important.

How else to be a more trustworthy person

While these are a few key things you can focus on to be a more trustworthy person, there are other small things that you can do as well.

6. For instance, if you spend more time with good people, you will be less inclined to do untrustworthy things such as gossip, and go back on your word because you will be surrounded with people that won’t tolerate that.

7. If you hang out with positive people that are also reliable and honest, you are more likely to reflect those behaviors.

8. As well, do some homework and find out what exactly people think about you. You can candidly ask people in your life how trustworthy they perceive you to be. Be careful, you might get some brutally honest answers. But, even if you do get some harsh feedback, take that and go with it and work on yourself.

The best that we can do is learn from our mistakes and try to improve ourselves as individuals. Being a trustworthy person is difficult, but it is often the kind of character that other people want to be around and aspire to be.

Being trustworthy and dependable may take a while to grow on you, but when you make a conscious effort and keep these 8 traits that make a person trustworthy in mind, you’ll soon be the person that’s admired, respected and trusted by everyone you know.

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