This book is starting to have a profound influence on me. I continue to be surprised at how the statements of this small book are so often on my mind. It's a little creepy, but I think I'm OK with it.
The 3rd Agreement: Don't Make Assumptions, and the 4th Agreement: Always Do Your Best seem to be obvious and simple. And yet, I realize that I need to really apply myself in these areas. The 3rd Agreement states: "Find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want". The 4th Agreement states: "Under any circumstance, simply do your best , and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret".
I was recently thinking about a failed friendship; trying to understand what went wrong. By applying the concepts from the Four Agreements, I can now see that I made assumptions about the other person that led to me taking events and actions personally, which affected my interactions with the other person in a very negative way. And, I think that the other person was not honest with me in words or actions (First Agreement: Be impeccable with your word). So between the two of us, we didn't have much of a chance. sigh. I'm working on trying to not be overly self-judgemental about this.
On the positive side, having made some steps towards understanding my own actions and thought patterns, I am very hopeful that I have actually learned some valuable lessons and will be able to avoid repeating this behavior in the future.
(hmmm. I'm starting to sound like I've joined a cult...no Kool-Aid is involved though, so I think it's safe).
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