If the main motivation in our work is money, we will never do our best. In addition, we will be stuck in well-paying jobs but without fulfillment or joy. Due to the lack of fulfillment in their work, these people then spend their weekends partying, drinking, and doing other things that harm their lives. These chains are developed from an early age. We are born into social norms that dictate the dreams we may have in life. The collective dream of the planet influences our individual dreams. This collective dream is taught to us by our parents, our schools, our religions and our politicians. Through this training, we learn to behave “correctly”, what we must believe and the difference between good and evil. Our acceptance of these social agreements should be called our domestication. When we tried to rebel in childhood or adolescence, we were punished and oppressed by more powerful parents and teachers.

Just like an animal, we were rewarded for obeying these more powerful individuals. Afterwards, we all surrendered and decided to follow the collective dream and not our individual dreams. However, as we get older, we no longer need a more powerful person to domesticate and control us. These ideas are constructed in such a way that we domesticate ourselves. Don Miguel suggests that we can free ourselves from this structure and make new deals for ourselves. These are the four agreements. If doing your best means working hard because you love work, your work will feel effortless. In this way, the final chord – always do your best – will increase the power of all other chords and help you break free. If you like the job or task you do, you will do your best without trying. Your work will feel effortless and you will do much better.

This final chord will help you increase the power of the other chords while freeing you from the old patterns. As we grew up, we unconsciously made a number of deals (much like the four deals) with ourselves. These agreements guide our behavior – they act as an internal compass through which we decide what to do and what not to do. But we never CHOSE these agreements. This book presents us with four agreements that we should make with ourselves in order to live a good life. It won`t be easy to replace our old agreements with these new four, but it can be a significant personal change you can make. “There is only one agreement left, but it is the one that allows the other three to become deep-rooted habits. By making a pact with these four key agreements, an individual is able to significantly influence the level of happiness they feel in their life, regardless of external circumstances. [6] Be impeccable in my own words, don`t take things personally, don`t make assumptions, and always do my best, these four promises are hard to keep, but once I became aware of these four promises, things changed in a positive direction. “The next three agreements were really born from the first agreement. The second agreement is not to take anything personally. Based on all these ideas, Don Miguel presented four clear messages to remember that should be implemented.

The four agreements show us that there is another way. By freeing ourselves from social structures and expectations, we can make new deals for ourselves. In addition to the book and audiobook, an eBook, a four-color illustrated book, a card game, and an online course are also available. [1] Impeccable means “sinless” and a sin is something you do or believe that goes against yourself. This means not speaking against yourself, for yourself or for others. This means not rejecting oneself. To be impeccable is to take responsibility, not to participate in the “game of guilt”. For the word, the rules of “action-reaction” apply. What you bring out energetically will come back to you. The correct use of the word creates the right use of energy to express love and gratitude, perpetuates the same in the universe. The reverse is also true.

Perfection begins at home. Be impeccable with yourself and this will be reflected in your life and relationships with others. This agreement can help change thousands of other agreements, especially those that create fear instead of love. We have all made a number of “agreements” about how we are going to manage life. We have made agreements with our friends, our partners, our parents, our children, with our gods, with society at large. And, of course, the most important agreements are those we have made with ourselves. All these agreements we have made guide our “personality”: they tell us who we are, how we feel, what we believe and how we behave. In most cases, however, all of these agreements have never been consciously chosen.

Ruiz says that, like farm animals, we were “domesticated” from childhood – we were punished or rewarded based on what we did or didn`t do, and it shaped us into 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 create new agreements that we consciously choose and then maintain day after day. Whatever your own agreements, Ruiz suggests that we (based on Toltec wisdom) should all conclude the following four agreements. The forgiveness that connects Don Miguel to consciousness refers to the forgiveness of our past and ongoing failures against the agreements we still have. It is also forgiveness for letting ourselves and our fellow human beings suffer because of our accepted illusions. Also, forgiveness for the suffering that others produce because of their dreams. Why not try breaking one of the hundreds or thousands of chords you have right now? Maybe you`re thinking you`re not good at painting – take out the watercolors and have fun creating something.