The second agreement provides readers with a way to cope with the hurtful treatment they may experience in life. He advocates the importance of having a strong sense of self and not having to rely on the opinions of others to be satisfied and satisfied with their self-image. This agreement also allows readers to understand the idea that each individual has a unique worldview that changes their own perceptions, and that a person`s actions and beliefs are a projection of their own personal reality. [1] Ruiz believes that anger, jealousy, envy, and even sadness can diminish or dissolve once an individual stops taking things personally. [8] Use this exercise to identify specific steps you can take to remove some old agreements that are holding you back. These first two chords free you from a lot of bad chords that have disrupted your life. After all, careless words combined with very offended people will inevitably bring drama. “The Four Chords” not only gave me the four chords with which I made small positive changes in my life, but the book also helped me understand the process of “domestication” and how that “domestication” shaped my belief systems. Anything we accept as “as is” is an agreement. But too many of these agreements harm ourselves and others. Think, for example, of the teenager who is starving to adapt. Think of someone who stays in an unhappy relationship because that`s all they know. Today`s world is full of suffering and cruelty.
From birth, we are trained to accept the rules of society as they are, but accepting these rules prevents us from becoming ourselves. But there is another way of life. If we replace the old agreements with four new simple agreements, we can free ourselves from the old rules and find peace and happiness. These agreements are: 1) Use your words impeccably. 2) Don`t take anything personally. 3) Don`t make assumptions. 4) Always do your best. The second agreement, “Don`t take anything personally,” Ruiz points out, as the words someone else says are not about you, but about them; they are just a projection of their dream.
Ruiz says that if you learn to use the power of this agreement, you will become immune to the opinions and actions of others and will never again fall victim to unnecessary suffering. People like to take things personally because of their “personal importance.” In this chapter, Ruiz delves deeper into personal meaning, why we do it, and how it affects our relationships. It reveals that if you practice this agreement, you will begin to free yourself from tons of small contracts that cause unnecessary suffering in your life. Making assumptions and taking things personally (agreements two and three) go hand in hand and lead to gossip, conflict and suffering. Except that we still have all these old agreements lying around. We must fight our way and reject them. How can we dismantle those old agreements that have created unnecessary suffering in our lives? How do we free ourselves from the old agreements? The third agreement, “Don`t make assumptions,” is to assume you know. Ruiz claims that acceptance leads to gossip and poisons our skies. In fact, he describes gossip as “the way we communicate with each other in the dream of hell and we transmit poison to each other” (p. 64).
Often, when we assume we know something about someone, we chat. But we don`t know what we believe about them to be true. Ruiz continues to discover why we accept and further emphasizes the effect it has on ourselves and others. This Agreement also applies to assumptions we make about us. Don Miguel Ruiz`s “The Four Accords” is essentially a roadmap to personal freedom. For someone who seeks personal truth and happiness, this book contains the main tools to get there. Ruiz`s advice offers a fusion of ancient humanist beliefs and modern life by incorporating the ancient teachings of the Toltecs. In the pages, you will discover a variety of common self-destructive agreements that many make in the form of beliefs and behaviors. Ruiz gives new agreements that we can make with ourselves (and others) as solutions to beliefs that prevent us from living the life God has planned for us.
Ruiz divides into four chapters the agreements that must be made to achieve true happiness and realize “the dream.” The Four Accords were published© in 1997 and have sold approximately 9 million copies. It has been on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly a decade. Everything we do is based on agreements we have made – agreements with ourselves, with other people, with God, with life. But the most important agreements are those we make with ourselves. If we want a life of joy, we must break those harmful agreements that promote suffering and failure. But how? We feel powerless because the creation and respect of all these negative agreements has sucked up our personal power. The third agreement describes the question of assuming how this leads to suffering and why individuals should not participate in its encounter. Accepting what others think can lead to stress and interpersonal conflict because the person believes that their hypothesis is a representation of the truth. [10] Ruiz believes that one solution to overcome the act of acceptance is to ask questions and ensure that communication between those involved is clear. [9] Individuals can avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama by not making assumptions. [1] As a result, the child learned to “behave” as everyone else – his parents, teachers and clergy – expected of him. He had to suppress his own dreams, and his identity began to fade, fade and disappear.
After all, the child who has become an adult no longer needs to be supervised by authority figures to stay on the right and narrow side. He believes in the big dream and has a tacit agreement with the beliefs and values that compose it. Ruiz explains that while this agreement is the most important, it is the most difficult to respect. [7] For this agreement, Ruiz first analyzes the word “impeccable.” The word impeccable comes from the Latin word peccatus, which means “sin,” and the “im” at the beginning of impeccable is the Latin prefix meaning “without.” Ruiz describes a sin as anything that goes against oneself, and therefore it means being impeccable with language, taking responsibility for one`s actions, and remaining without judgment against oneself and others. [8] Essentially, this agreement emphasizes the importance of speaking eloquently and carefully choosing words before they are spoken aloud. [9] If you follow this agreement, you will be happy and at peace. .