Trust--The Definitions and The Questions

"It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody." --18th-century English proverb

The Definitions:
-noun
1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
2. confident expectation of something; hope.
3. a person on whom or thing on which one relies: God is my trust.
4. the condition of one to whom something has been entrusted.
5. the obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed: a position of trust.
6. charge, custody, or care: to leave valuables in someone's trust.
7. something committed or entrusted to one's care for use or safekeeping, as an office, duty, or the like; responsibility; charge.
  
-verb (used without object)
8. to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something (usually followed by in  or to ): to trust in another's honesty; trusting to luck.
9. to have confidence; hope: Things work out if one only trusts.

–verb (used with object)
10. to have trust or confidence in; rely or depend on.
11. to believe.
12. to expect confidently; hope (usually followed by a clause or infinitive as object): trusting the job would soon be finished; trusting to find oil on the land.
13. to commit or consign with trust or confidence.
14. to permit to remain or go somewhere or to do something without fear of consequences: He does not trust his children out of his sight.
15. to invest with a trust; entrust with something.
16. to give credit to (a person) for goods, services, etc., supplied: Will you trust us till payday?
    
The Questions:
There are so many definitions and types of trust. Why is it when someone, anyone, or an organization ruins the trust you have placed in them that it infects the trust in everything and everyone in your life? The confidence that we have in our decision making is affected and becomes questionable in our own minds. It becomes difficult to build it back up. The remaining lack of trust becomes a lack of trust in you, your own decisions and abilities to trust the right people. Some people are able to shrug this off, yet others just can't seem to shake it. How does a person gain trust in his or herself after a battery of assaults to his or her confidence and trust in others?  How does one know when to trust his or her so-called gut, the instinctive feeling that we are only slightly aware of at times? Sometimes that feeling we think is the gut or instinct, could be fear or paranoia of making bad decisions.  Sometimes it is the primal screams of knowledge shouting at you to get out of the way of yourself and/or the lynch mob.

The quote on the top of the note is important for us to remember, yet how do we know who to trust. We just throw it out there and hope that the people that we are trusting are trustworthy. It is a shame to have not trusted those who would have "had our back" because we listened to the fear and didn't realize it wasn't a warning, but just fear. It is also a shame to continue to put our faith/confidence/trust in those that are harmful and deceitful.

I suppose the only way we can have faith or confidence is to continue to put ourselves out there and hope that our decisions are correct for us; hope that the people we put ourselves around aren’t the people and organizations that are harmful and deceitful.  If we do find ourselves lacking confidence in our abilities to trust ourselves or others because of the barrage of assaults to our psyche, then hopefully, we have people in our lives to remind us that we have a reason to trust because we chose them correctly, and they do have our back.