Nick Whitehead

1/4/16

Discuss the four Agreements. The four agreements are, be impeccable with your
word, dont take anything personally, dont make assumptions, and always do your best.
This book is called the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. These four agreements
talked about in the book come from the knowledge the Toltecs had. The Toltecs are a
small group from southern Mexico that had secret knowledge they kept to themselves.
According to Ruiz, the first agreement is to Be impeccable with your word. For
instance being impeccable with your word means to tell the truth, dont gossip, and
speak without saying anything bad because your words can cause harm. I found these
details in chapter 2 on page 26. It says to speak with integrity. Say only what you
mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the
power of your word in the direction of truth and love. Not following this agreement can
cause harm to others. For example Adolf Hitler did not use this agreement. Instead he
used the power of persuasion to lead a group of people into a world war with just the
power of his word.
There are four agreements total and the second one is Dont take anything
personally. To not take anything personally is like when someone says something or
looks at you weird dont take it personally. That person might just be having a bad day.
The supporting details I found for this agreement is on page 51-52. It says, personal
importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness
because we make the assumption that everything is about yourself. If you do not follow
this agreement you can cause arguments. Because you will blame people for stuff they
didnt even know hurt you because it wasnt even toward you. You should follow this
agreement. This agreement will get you through life easier. With less problems to deal
with.
The third agreement according to Ruiz is, Dont make assumptions. There is
only one agreement left after this One. The agreement dont make assumptions
means you shouldnt make things up about people or anything before you ask them
what their real situation is. A quote to support this is, the problem with making
assumptions is that we believe they are the truth. I found this quote on page (69) of
chapter 4. You could hurt people's feelings if you do not follow this agreement. If you
make assumptions about people, you can risk spreading rumours. So dont make
assumptions. This is why you should follow this agreement. Because if you dont you
will have many consequences.
The last agreement of all four is to Always do your best. This agreement that
says dont make assumptions means that in any situation no matter what you need to

always try your hardest. Because if you try your hardest you will succeed. It doesnt
matter what people say or think because in your heart you succeeded. A supporting
detail to this is found on page (88) in chapter 5 which says, When you always do your
best, you take action. Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not
because youre expecting a award. If you do not follow this agreement you will hurt
yourself because inside you wont feel like you succeeded. You should always follow
this agreement, and all of the other 3.