In 1997, author Don Miguel Ruiz released a book called The Four Agreements. In it, he lays out four principles for living a better life.Those agreements are: 1. Be impeccable with your word2. Take nothing personally3. Don’t make assumptions, and4. Always do your best. By adhering to these four agreements, Ruiz believes we can improve the quality of our lives. Don Miguel Ruiz’s wisdom is written from his lifetime of study of the Toltec people and four key principles for life. The Toltec were a group of Mesoamerican tribes from around 900 to 1168 in central Mexico. They preceded the Aztecs and knowledge of them suggests that their history and culture was passed on by ‘word of mouth’ to the Aztecs.’ Some believe the Toltec were mythical — others that they were a bloodthirsty society, driven by war, architecture and human sacrifice. Whatever the truth is about the Toltec people, Ruiz studied and wrote his best-selling book on a simple wisdom which he attributes to a philosophical aspect of Toltec culture. I have owned this book for many years and occasionally glanced at it, taking no action. Yet one night recently, I revisited it and tried the first agreement the next day. I needed to be clear on what ‘being impeccable with your word’ actually meant. I associated ‘impeccable’ as meaning perfect and often attributed to manners. This is not always the case. To be impeccable with your word is to speak from the heart, with truth, honesty and compassion. It is to speak positively and express yourself how a higher, divine power would. Your words must do no harm to yourself or others. Sounds good? Again, it’s not that easy. I loaded everyday life with habits, routines, tasks, and correspondences. How could I express myself as if a divine being was talking? How impeccable can it be if it is something as mundane as asking someone to help me clean the car? Seriously, does God even care if the car gets cleaned?! Does God even know I have a car? If there is no God to speak of, what need is there to consider washing the car? I took the positive route of ‘kindness.’ I can do this, but could I remain objective and impeccable with my responses if someone was rude to me? The day would be an excellent test. If someone was rude, I would simply be impeccable, detached from my ego and respond in a positive, compassionate, harmless way. It sounded contrived, but I surprised myself. So what happened after a day of incorporating my first agreement? · I laughed and smiled more· There were less misunderstandings with communication· I felt calmer· I had higher motivation (I was struggling with this one before)· I noticed more positives than negatives in my day.· I handled a very stressful situation effectively· I had the best night’s sleep in many months There were several moments where I had to remind myself I had to be impeccable with my word, as it is easy to slip into the usual ways. On the whole, it was a great success. Since then, I incorporated being impeccable with my word more. I forget about it a lot too. Like all habits, it takes time for it to become natural. Also, we have a choice and sometimes you just don’t feel like being impeccable. When that happens, the positive effects go missing and after a while, you remember how much kinder life is with the first agreement. I’m definitely moving on to include the second agreement. Impeccably! Back To Blogs<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link" href="https://developingspirit.com/blog">https://developingspirit.com/blog</a> Home<h4 id="fc642e7c-9b8f-4e01-b1cb-7316762f2056" data-toc-id="fc642e7c-9b8f-4e01-b1cb-7316762f2056"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="PlaygroundEditorTheme__link" href="https://www.developingspirit.com">Developing Spirit</a></h4>

In 1997, author Don Miguel Ruiz released a book called The Four Agreements. In it, he lays out four principles for living a better life. 

I Tried One Of The Four Agreements & This Happened

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I Tried One Of The Four Agreements & This Happened

I Tried One Of The Four Agreements & This Happened

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