“The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz is a self-help book of 160 pages. It takes around 2 hours and 18 minutes to read it, yet it’s not recommended to read it at once to reflect upon the four agreements.
Ø Agreement 1: Be Impeccable With Your Word.
Ø Agreement 2: Don’t Take Anything Personally.
Ø Agreement 3: Don’t Make Assumptions.
Ø Agreement 4: Always Do Your Best.
It’s a spiritual book that I always recommend, for it is eye-opening and easy to read. My notebook is full of paragraphs I copied from this book, especially from the 4th agreement.
There was a man who wanted to transcend his suffering, so he went to a Buddhist temple to find a Master to help him. He went to the Master and asked, “Master, if I meditate four hours a day, how long will it take me to transcend?”
The master looked at him and said, “If you meditate four hours a day, perhaps you will transcend in 10 years.”
Thinking he could do better, the man then said, “Oh master, what if I meditated eight hours a day, how long will it take me to transcend?”
The master looked at him and said, “If you meditate eight hours a day, perhaps you’ll transcend in 20 years.”
“But why will it take me longer if I meditate more?” The man asked.
The Master replied, “You are not here to sacrifice your joy or your life. You are here to live, to be happy, and to love. If you can do your best in two hours of meditation, but you spend eight hours instead, you will only grow tired, miss the point, and you won’t enjoy your life. Do your best, and perhaps you will learn that no matter how long you meditate, you can live, love, and be happy.”
In this short story, we learn and get to remember that life is not about overworking and overdoing things. Life is a combination of different areas and it’s important to keep them in balance.
“Do your best”, the keyword in this affirmation is the possessive adjective “your”. When practicing a skill or executing a task, it’s important to remain realistic with our expectations and remember that growth happens gradually.
It takes 9 months for a baby to be born. The way we don’t expect a child to come up out of his mother’s womb reciting the alphabet, we should keep our expectations real without comparing ourselves to others.
Every time you do your best, you get better than the last time you did your best. It only takes awareness to look at our results and keep practicing with compassion and patience towards ourselves.
I highly recommend this book.
Ninette Abi Atallah
I loved this book and it was life-changing! Thank you so much for recommending it!
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Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.
Thank you!