Response to The Four Agreements

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September 22, 2008 Response to The Four Agreements The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is a guide to free oneself from the everyday petty events that lead to stress and suffering. Through agreements such as be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, and always do your best, Ruiz promises self-growth and development. My initial reaction to the author’s writing was that he is an extremist with a very pessimistic outlook on life. Ruiz’s idea of the “domestication of humans” and that humans surrender their beliefs to agreement with the mainstream ideas of society is a narrow-minded claim. Schools and parents usually teach children to think critically and “outside the box” on their own. Furthermore, the author discusses laws and claims that life is a 24-hour dream that uses repetition to enforce certain rules and ideas in human’s brains. However, after reading the first agreement, I began to understand the ideas that Ruiz is trying to articulate and I stopped reading so defensively. The more I read, Ruiz inspired me to pay more attention to the ways I live my life and how I treat others and myself. For example, I completely agree with his argument stating, “The human is the only animal on earth that pays a thousand times for the same mistake”(12). I have a really excellent memory and therefore, I am very hard on myself when I mess something up and I am even harsher with others when I feel betrayed. It is very hard for me to just drop an argument or setback and move on because it is always fixed in the back of my mind. For example, I lost a very valuable ring in the ocean a couple of years ago that was given to me by my grandmother. Every time I think about that ring I feel sick from regret and disappointment. Ruiz’s fourth agreement stating “always do your best” has made me realize I should just do my best in all

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