A Holiday Book Guide: “The Four Agreements”

“The Four Agreements,” by Don Miguel Ruiz, is essentially a roadmap to personal freedom. To someone who is searching for personal truth and happiness, this book contains the quintessential tools to get there. Ruiz’s guidance offers a melding of ancient humanistic beliefs and modern day life by incorporating the ancient teachings of the Toltecs. Within the pages, you will discover a multitude of common self-destructive agreements many make in the form of beliefs and behaviors. Ruiz gives new agreements to make with ourselves (and others) as solutions to the beliefs holding us back from living the life God intended us to live. Ruiz breaks down into four chapters the agreements one must make to achieve true happiness and fulfill “the dream.”

Be Impeccable with Your Word

The First Agreement, “Be Impeccable with Your Word,” means merely to say what you mean and speak with integrity. Simple, but the most challenging one to make, according to Ruiz. Often you may think you are getting your point across. However, Ruiz points out, everyone is living their dream, and if you are not precise with your words and do not say only what you mean, you will lose integrity. If you do say what you mean, however, you can reach truth and happiness. Ruiz emphasizes why this agreement is so important: It gives you the most basic solution to the plethora of minor accidental untruths that result from poor communication and lack of integrity.

Don’t Take Anything Personally

The Second Agreement, “Don’t Take Anything Personally,” Ruiz emphasizes how words someone else says are not about you, but them; they are only a projection of their dream. Ruiz says, if you learn to utilize the power of this agreement, you will become immune to the opinions and actions of others and never be the victim of needless suffering again. Humans like to take things personally because of “personal importance.” Ruiz goes deeper into personal importance, why we do it, and how it affects our relationships in this chapter. He reveals that if you practice this agreement, you will begin to rid yourself of tons of small contracts that cause unnecessary suffering in your life.

Don’t Make Assumptions

The Third Agreement, “Don’t Make Assumptions,” is about assuming you know. Ruiz claims that assuming leads to gossip and poisons our heaven. In fact, he describes gossip as “the way we communicate to each other in the dream of hell and transfer poison to one another” (pg. 64). Often when we assume we know something about someone we gossip. But we don’t know what we believe about them to be true. Ruiz goes on to uncover why we assume and further emphasizes the effect it has on ourselves and others. This agreement goes for assumptions we make about ourselves as well.

Always Do Your Best

The Fourth Agreement, “Always Do Your Best” is the last agreement. This agreement is about the actions of the first three. It will help engrain those agreements as habits if we always do our best. Ruiz advises doing no less than your best and no more than your best. Understand that your best will not always be the best you can do. Sometimes it will be excellent, and sometimes your best will be low quality because of life and other factors. But always doing your best at the time will help you achieve your goals sooner, Ruiz explains.

I highly recommend this book to anyone searching for personal freedom. What I learned from this book is that no one is succumbed to their surroundings and attaining freedom without making considerable changes to your life is possible. Whether you are in the middle of a personal crisis or just feel that control is out of your reach, this book is a realistic roadmap for gaining it back. It will reinforce to you what you have needed to hear in four simple steps.

This book is a short 138 pages long and is an excellent addition to any book collection. It offers many great lessons and is an inspiring piece of work containing the keys to enlightenment. Happy Reading!

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