The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, is a book that has been on my must-read list the past few months. As a Mexican Shaman, Ruiz wrote the book as a guide to personal freedom.In an effort to "expose self-limiting beliefs" Ruiz offers four "simple, yet effective" rules for personal conduct:
1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Don't take anything personally
3. Don't make assumptions
4. Always do your best
These seem easy enough but when faced with living your life by these rules you may realize appearances are deceiving. In my own life I find that I do take things personally from time to time, do not always put forth my best effort, can waver on my word, and sometimes make assumptions. Ruiz believes that by living our lives with these four principles as a guide we can eliminate many of the struggles we encounter. I, for one, am interested in seeing how accurate his theory is.
For the next week I'm going to try living my life by these principles, focusing on one each day for the first four days, then perfecting all of them the remaining seven.
