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Gaining Personal Freedom by Living the Four Agreements
Making sense of ancient Toltec principles, and using them in your daily life.
In 1997, former surgeon Don Miguel Ruiz published the book The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. It became a runaway hit, making the New York Times Bestseller list and becoming one of Oprah Winfrey’s “favorite things”. It has gone on to influence a generation of people, providing them with a different and simpler way to guide how they live their lives.
The book is usually described as more of a spiritual and new-age type book—largely because of its more mystical statements about everything being “made of love” and other similar metaphysical claims. But the 4 “agreements” — which are basically simple operating principles — are still worth taking a look at. They provide a simple set of instructions for living.
Below, I break these “agreements” down in simple terms, and describe what it looks like to use them in daily life.
Be Impeccable With Your Word
Ruiz’s first “agreement” is to be impeccable with your word. It’s kind of a two-part principle, in that he’s using two meanings of “word”.
