The Four Agreements Are Simple. Living Them Isn’t.

We read the book *The Four Agreements* at the Machine book club some years back, and some of the feedback was, “These concepts are obvious,” and “This is so basic.” While there’s some truth to that, the real question is if we’re actually living those values.

The Four Agreements are:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

It’s one of the more straightforward rule sets in a personal development book I’ve ever read. Take a look at each one.

Being impeccable with your word is following through on what you say, not talking shit about people, and not lying. How many little white lies do people say every day? Sometimes we don’t want to admit we forgot to do something or we messed up. It’s easier to come up with a little story rather than just telling the truth.

“Don’t take anything personally” is easy to say, but hard to do. Most of us find ourselves taking things personally and don’t even realize it. If you make this a rule in your life, you’ll probably find there’s a lot of work to do.

“Don’t make assumptions” sounds super easy, but once you start thinking about it, you might find you assume all kinds of things. It’s actually difficult to be objective, especially these days when we’re bombarded with so much information on our phones. It’s easy to assume things instead of getting the facts.

“Always do your best” is something we likely heard in grade school. How often do we half-ass things? Does anyone really always do their best? Imagine how much better our lives would be if we actually put our best effort forward with everything we did.

It all sounds like basic shit until you start trying to live it.

— Bus