Four Agreements - Be Impeccable With Your Word

Be Impeccable With Your Word
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

Today - we take on the first of the four agreements. Much of the discussion that immediately follows is directly from the chapter with my own commentary thrown in

This is the most important - and the most difficult of the four. Your intentions manifest through your words. Your word is a force that you put into the world. If you think of the words of someone like Hitler, you get a feeling for how powerful this force can be.

The human mind is fertile ground - you plant a seed, a thought, and it grows. The word is the seed.

You are a magician - you constantly cast spells on people with your words. Today, I will be making my first appearance at a new Toastmasters Club as a mentor. I will need to be impeccable with my word here...big time.

By hooking our attention - the word can enter our mind and change a whole belief....for better or worse.

Your beliefs are formed by words - what if you say to yourself, "I am stupid." Are you really? It gets down to what you believe....and you believe in words.

Impeccability - comes from the latin, pecatus, which means "sin." The "im" means "without." If something is impeccable, it is without sin. Forget the religious conotation around the word, "sin." "Sin" is anything you do that goes against yourself. From this context, sin transcends moral or religious judgement to commonsense. Sin is about rejecting yourself and self-rejection is the biggest sin you can create.

If I call you "stupid" - you will hate me and I have thus used the word against myself.

Gossip.....revenge with words - all will come back against yourself

When you become impeccable with your word - you become immune from anyone casting a negative spell on you. Your mind is no longer fertile ground for this black magic and becomes fertile for words of love (does that sound mushy? Psssst....shhhhh.....c'mon....admit it...deep down you want more of that, don't you? Your secret is safe with me).

Your exercise: get a little notepad or your journal and keep it handy to capture your thoughts and observations for the next couple of days and enter them in the same place. Note them to yourself only even though they may be in regards to how others do in this category. Think of someone that you admire....how do they do with their words. Finally, you may want to get a post it note, a rubber band, or something that reminds you to be on the lookout. It is easy to read this and say you will be on the lookout but, without a string around your finger, you slide right back in to how you were. Remember, we are talking about making a change, here. Any change means getting out of your routine.

Feel free to leave a comment here - or to e-mail me directly. Let's see what you discover.