You know something’s wrong. There’s that niggling feeling that something’s missing, a truth, a detail, something.

But you don’t know what. You can’t put your finger on it.

So, you ignore it. You brush the uncomfortable feeling aside and tell yourself it’s okay. You can trust this person. There’s really nothing wrong.

Until it happens again.

And again.

Until it gets to the point where you can’t ignore it. The discomfort has become pain… and you realize that you were right the first time. Something was off.

And now, well, it just might be too late.

Have you experienced something like this? Where you know in your gut that something is amiss and you ignore it?

Until it’s too late… or almost too late?

That’s when trust collapses.

Trust in the person who may have withheld the truth or shaded it. Maybe told you an outright lie.

You’ve lost trust in the person. You’ve been betrayed.

What hurts even more is that what you’ve really lost is trust in yourself.

When you rush past the initial discomfort instead of saying, “Hey, something feels off, let’s talk about it”, you set yourself up for a lot more pain in the future.

Not only the pain of being betrayed, but the pain of betraying yourself.

But we all do it. We all ignore that funny feeling in our gut or our heart or wherever you experience that sense of unease that signals something is wrong. It’s so easy to dismiss it. It’s so easy to say, “I’ll deal with it later.”

Then trust collapses.

And you’re left with an even bigger mess.

Because you didn’t trust yourself… and your trust in someone else was misplaced.

Not every situation like this is irreparable, but it didn’t have to get this bad.

So…why not speak up the first time? Honor your instinct or intuition? Learn sooner whether someone is trustworthy or not. Come up with a better plan to deal with it if he or she isn’t.

Maybe even set them on a better path by calling them out.

Don’t let trust collapse because you didn’t pay enough attention to your own inner signals.

Speak up.

The first time…. or at least, the second. 😊

______________________________________________________________

To dive deeper into the world of trust and rebuilding trust, save the date for the release of my new novel: Embracing Trust: Book 3 of the Ascending Ladders Series on February 24, 2026!