“The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz — “10 Bullets-100 Words” Book Summary

Book title — “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz with Janet Mills.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

It’s a concise book but a provocative one and is full of wisdom. It not only links back to your belief systems but gives you a practical guide to improve those belief systems.

“10 bullets-100 words” book summary and my takeaways from this book:

1. We are “Domesticated” — Social norms & rules are lodged deep within us.
2. Practice three skills to rebel against “Domestication.”
3. Awareness: Practice meditation and mindfulness
4. Forgiveness: Awareness brings forgiveness
5. Action: From forgiveness, you will receive the strength to Act
6. Set yourself Four promises and completely change your life
7. First: “Be impeccable with your word”: Impeccable = Without Sin, Say only what you mean.
8. Second: “Don’t take anything personally”: Understand that other’s words are the product of their domesticated lives.
9. Third: “Don’t make assumptions”: Be brave to ask questions.
10. Four: “Always do your best”: Your best will change from moment to moment.

My takeaways

“The Four Agreements” not only gave me the four agreements using which I have brought small positive changes to my life, but the book has also helped me understand the process of “Domestication” and how this “Domestication” has formed my belief systems.

It was a key learning for me that I don’t own all my belief systems. I am a product of my “Domestication” process, and so are you. Your belief system is different than mine, and hence we can’t, and we should not judge each other.

Be impeccable with my own words, not take things personally, make assumptions, and always do my best; these four promises are tough to keep. Still, once I made myself aware of these four promises, things have started shifting in a positive direction.

“The Four Agreements” has left a permanent mark on my life, and I am sure this ‘simple to read’ book will do the same to you.

Sources:

1. https://www.miguelruiz.com/the-four-agreements
2. https://fastertomaster.com/the-four-agreements-toltec-don-miguel-ruiz/
3. https://fourminutebooks.com/the-four-agreements-summary/

100 words are as easy as it’s challenging to summarize an excellent book. There is so much which remains unsaid. Confining myself to 100 words brings out more creativity and effort, and that’s why I see more meaning in such a format.

The perspective of this format is to allow the book to pull the reader towards itself. When you pick the book and read it in its entirety, that’s when you honor the author’s efforts and get an opportunity to learn a lot of new things.

I hope this structure entices you to pick up this book, learn a new thing or two, and expand your outlook.

Book summaries should act like the smell of freshly baked bread in the air and not just a cold piece of supermarket bread. The smell should push you to bake your own bread.

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Nishith is an author and creator of a unique self-development platform — “Be Better Bit-By-Bit.” Grab a copy of his books — Be Better Bit-By-Bit and My Daily 5-Minute Gratitude Journal.

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