Nick Hutchison breaks down Don Miguel Ruiz's Four Agreements: be impeccable with your word, don't take things personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best. He shows how each one counters limiting beliefs and explains that applying them together leads to self-love and freedom.
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Hello and welcome to episode number 8 of the brand new video series, 5 Lessons Learned, brought to you by BookThinkers, where each and every week the team and I will bring to you the top 5 lessons learned from a book that we've read and loved. This week we're going to explore the top lessons in The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Now, talking about limiting self-beliefs can either offend you or transform your life, and the clarity with which Don Miguel Ruiz talks about his Four Agreements is why it's so eye-opening to so many different people. It doesn't matter what stage you're at in life or who you are, this book can absolutely help you. So without further ado, let's jump into lesson number 1. Lesson number 1, or in this case agreement number 1, is to be impeccable with your word. Being impeccable means to be without sin, and when we look at sin not necessarily in a moral or religious sense But as in something that can harm you, it makes sense to try to avoid that. Being impeccable is the correct use of your energy. You're avoiding emotional poison. And I'll give you an example. If you're negative and you try to harm somebody else with your words, then they're going to be negative back towards you. They're going to dislike you, and that's not good. That's a negative energy. But on the flip side of the coin, when you're positive and when you're giving positive energy to somebody else, they're going to receive that and then give it back to you. That's the correct use of your energy. So to sum things up, lesson or agreement number 1 is to be impeccable with your word. Lesson number 2, or agreement number 2, is don't take anything personally. What he's talking about is the fact that human beings oftentimes have so many insecurities and limiting beliefs that they feel the need to either defend themselves or pump themselves up based off of what's happening in other people's worlds. It's pretty crazy. I mean, when somebody walks by you and says, hey, you're stupid, and you don't even know that person, yet you boil up inside and start telling them why you're intelligent, that's because deep down you have a limiting belief or insecurity that you're not smart enough and need to prove it to other people. I mean, when somebody says you're stupid, that's a perception of their own reality. You don't know what caused them to say that. There's no reason to take offense to it or take it personally. But also, if you live by this rule, on the flip side, when somebody says you're wonderful, you can't let that inflate your ego. You can't let that make you feel so positive because you know you're wonderful. It doesn't matter what's happening in that person's world in order to make you feel so good about yourself. If you feel that good because somebody else pumps you up for a couple seconds, that most likely means that you have a limiting belief or insecurity that you're not wonderful. So lesson or agreement number 2 is don't take anything personally. Because then you're able to live a more constant life and you're able to feel more secure about what's going on inside of your own head. Lesson or agreement number 3 would be don't make assumptions. So many times when we're communicating with another person, we take what they say or what we think they're saying, we put it into our head as fact, and then we respond knowing what they said as fact when most Most of the time it hasn't been communicated clearly enough or it's misunderstood on our side, and that creates sadness and drama, misunderstandings and frustration. That's a lot of negativity that gets put out into the world because we don't take the time to communicate clearly and ask follow-up questions or explore what the other person is trying to say more clearly. Now that's one kind of assumption that we want to avoid making, and that's easily fixed. The other kind of assumption that we want to avoid making would be a fear-based assumption. How many times when you were a child did you shut the light off and run up the stairs because you didn't want the monsters to get you? There's an old quote that says, I've known many troubles in my life, but most of them never happened. And that extends into our adulthood. We make so many assumptions based off of what's happening in the world around us, and we don't take the time to truly understand and think Okay, is this going to hurt me? Is this fear-based assumption I'm having right now going to impact my life in a negative way? Most of the time it's not. Lesson or agreement number 4 is always do your best. And when you do your best, there's absolutely no more room for self-judgment. And when you can't judge yourself, there's no room for regret or self-pity or any sort of self-abuse. It's interesting that the human being is the only animal on the planet that can harm itself 1,000 times for the same mistake. That's obviously something that we'd like to avoid being human beings. You don't want to pay for the same mistake 1,000 times. So one way to avoid or prevent that from happening is just doing your best, giving it your all each and every day, whether you're sick and tired or you're healthy and energized, just go out there and give it your best. The 5th and final lesson today is kind of to sum up all 4 of the agreements that we talked about, and that's that If you do your best in the search for personal freedom and self-love, you'll realize that it's just a matter of time before you find what you're looking for. It's not daydreaming or sitting on a couch meditating for 8 hours a day to learn more about yourself, but it's implementing these agreements and watching them take effect and take hold and plant roots in your life. It's so amazing what can happen with just a 1% deviation from where your life is currently trending. And these agreements can help get you there. Self-love and personal freedom, those are things that this book can help you find. So, that's lesson number 5. Kind of, you're on the right track if you just sit back and realize that you're a human being and you can take control of your life. If you've made it this far, thank you so much. And we hope you've enjoyed the top 5 lessons today from The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Don Miguel Ruiz does have a lot of additional content, so if this is up your alley, please do a quick Google search and you'll find out more information on him. If you'd like to pick up a copy of this book specifically, we have dropped a link in the comments section below. Also, if there's a book that you'd like to see us review, please drop a link in the comments section below or private message us as some of you have done. We'd be happy to check those out. We will literally read any book Whether it's an absolute classic or it's a brand new book from an unknown author, happy to check it out. And if we like it, we'll turn it into a review. And then last but not least, if you'd like to connect with us more, please sign up for bookthinkers.com. It's currently a web-based application that allows users to create a virtual bookshelf. They can log their book notes and set systematic reminders so they can retain more information from the books they love. They can also talk with their friends and compete for individual or group goals. They can earn badges. There's a lot more stuff on there, so go check that out. So with that being said, go out there and read, retain, share, and grow, and we hope to see you again soon. Bye.
