Reminds me of a Buddhist idea. A Vietnamese Buddhist professor named Thich Nhat Hanh says we all have a memory consciousness, a place from which seeds form in our daily thoughts. These seeds can be healthy or harmful. So we need to feed the seeds healthy so that they stay in our minds longer. We must also bring back harmful seeds (such as anger, ignorance and greed) into our camp consciousness. If you want to learn more about these great Buddhist ideas, read our summary of Thich Nhat Hanh`s The Heart of the Buddha`s Teachings. That is why the first concordance of this book is to be blameless with your word. But what exactly does that mean? Well, the word “impeccable” means perfect. So you should be perfect or flawless with the words you use to speak to yourself.

In this article, we will present a brief summary of The Four Agreements, a fascinating book by Don Miguel Ruiz. But first, a few words about why you should care. We have all reached a series of agreements on how we will lead the lives. We have agreements with our friends, our partners, our parents, our children, with our God, with society at large. And of course, the most important agreements are those we have made with ourselves. All these agreements we have concluded guide our “personality”: they tell us who we are, how we feel, what we believe and how we behave. However, in most cases, all of these agreements were never deliberately chosen. Ruiz says that, like farm animals, we have been “domesticated” since childhood – we have been punished or rewarded based on what we have done or not, and that has shaped us to become who we are today. This book shows us that it is possible to break some of the old “agreements” that no longer serve us, and instead to create new agreements that we consciously choose and maintain day after day. Whatever your own agreements, Ruiz suggests that we should (based on Toltec`s wisdom) conclude all the following four agreements.

That`s how everyone puts on a mask and starts living in a dream. We believe in all these things and we live by all these rules that we have never stopped thinking about. Don Miguel calls all these beliefs and rules “agreements,” because we for these beliefs and rules were part of our AGREE dream. (But of course, the kids always agree, so it`s not your fault.) Based on all these ideas, Don Miguel has launched four clear messages to implement. When we are adults, we have unconsciously made a number of agreements (which are not too indespectable of the four agreements). These agreements guide our behavior – they serve as an internal compass through which we decide what we do and what we don`t. But we never chose those agreements. This book presents four agreements that we should make with ourselves to lead a good life. Replacing our old agreements with these four new ones won`t be easy, but it can be a significant personal change that you can make. If you like the job or the job you do, you will do your best without even trying. Your work will feel effortless and you will get much better results.

This final agreement will help you increase the power of other agreements while stripping yourself of old patterns. There is a more detailed summary of the four agreements on Blinkist. You can find it by clicking on the link below.