The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz — book cover

The Four Agreements

Don Miguel Ruiz · 1997

The Four Agreements (1997) is a book by Don Miguel Ruiz on Mindset & self-limiting beliefs. Don Miguel Ruiz draws on ancient Toltec wisdom to show how the invisible agreements you made about yourself growing up quietly run your life, and how swapping them for four simple, deliberate ones can free you from needless suffering.

8 min read · 7 chapters · Personal Growth

Why it’s on the shelf

Four simple agreements for personal freedom and breaking self-defeating beliefs.

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of The Four Agreements pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

  1. You were 'domesticated' into beliefs you never chose, notice which inner rules are actually yours versus borrowed, then renegotiate them on purpose.
  2. Be impeccable with your word: speak about yourself and others only in ways you'd be willing to make true, because words plant seeds that grow into your reality.
  3. Stop taking things personally, what people say and do is a projection of their own story, so refuse to swallow the 'emotional poison' and most of your hurt disappears.

The other 4 — and the full 8-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 7 chapters

The whole summary runs about 8 minutes, read or listened to.

  1. The Dream You Were Handed
  2. Agreement 1: Be Impeccable With Your Word
  3. Agreement 2: Don't Take Anything Personally
  4. Agreement 3: Don't Make Assumptions
  5. Agreement 4: Always Do Your Best
  6. Breaking the Old Agreements
  7. The New Dream: Heaven on Earth

Finish The Four Agreements tonight.

Read or listen to the full summary in about 8 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.

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