The Four Agreements

One of my colleagues has a cheat sheet of The Four Agreements up by her desk.   The Four Agreements are a reminder to find your own integrity, self-love, and peace.  The idea is to trade up from limiting beliefs to agreements that support and empower your personal freedom.

Here are the Four Agreements:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions.
4. Always Do Your Best.

The Four Agreements are from the book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, by don Miguel Ruiz.   Here is a summary of each agreement, according to don Miquel Ruiz:

1. Be Impeccable with Your Word.
   Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally.
   Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions.
   Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best.
   Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

don Miguel Ruiz’s son don Jose Ruiz added a fifth agreement, with his book, The Fifth Agreement:: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery.   The fifth agreement is:  Be Skeptical but Learn to Listen.  The message is to see the truth, to recover your authenticity, and to change the message you deliver not only to yourself, but to everyone around you.

The agreements are simple.  Your results can be profound.