Last Wednesday I was reminded of The Four Agreements, written by Don Miguel Ruiz, and remembered just how powerful they really are.  I had them written up on my fridge a few years ago and then the board they were written on broke so I took it down and have forgotten about them.  So I am delighted by the reminder. It also jolted me into seeing how I had made an assumption with one of my friends the day before.

If you are not familiar with the four agreements, they are:

1.  Be impeccable with your word; 
2.  Never make assumptions; 
3.  Don’t take anything personally; 
4.  Always do your best


They seem so simple and so obvious, but are actually much deeper and far more powerful than meets the eye. I wanted to share with you a snippet of what I read up on the first agreement which blew me away (again!!)  

"1ST AGREEMENT: BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

“The first agreement is the most important one and also the most difficult one to honor. It is so

important that with just this first agreement you will be able to transcend to the level of existence

I call heaven on earth. The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word. It sounds very

simple, but it is very, very powerful.”

First, let’s look at how Ruiz defines the word impeccability: “Impeccability means ‘without sin.’

Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means ‘sin.’ The im in impeccable means

‘without,’ so impeccable means ‘without sin.’ Religions talk about sin and sinners, but let’s

understand what it really means to sin. A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. 

Everything you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself for anything. 

Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.” Brilliant.

So when we’re impeccable, we don’t use our word against ourselves indulging in guilt or shame.

We also don’t use our word against others in blaming, criticizing or gossiping. We also honor our

commitments and only make commitments we intend to follow through on.

How’re you doing on those fronts?"  (http://www.zikbay.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/the-four-agreements.pdf ) 

If this resonates with you, get yourself a copy of the book.  It's definitely worth reading and putting into practice.  I'm going to try with this one first. :-)