How to apply the 4 agreements at work?

If you feel stuck in your life it may be time for you to read the masterful book of the 4 agreements. Yes, you may think that self-help stuff is not for you, but the truth is that it has very positive points that can help you move forward. 

The business world is far from simple. Sometimes it’s important to look back and that’s where this book comes into play.

More and more teams are applying it and increasing their productivity by a large percentage. 

Want to see how it can help your organization? Read on!

What are the 4 agreements?

Let's start by defining what the 4 agreements are. 

They are several theories that you must follow to the letter in order to have harmony and peace with yourself. 

Over time, many ideas penetrate our minds and take us away from our true purpose and that is where the problems appear. 

Day-to-day life is usually quite exhausting, so different paradigms start to take us out of focus, and the stability we had before starts to fail. 

In this way, the 4 agreements are positioned as several universal principles that seek to give us the tranquility and harmony that we lost at a certain moment. 

These are the 4 agreements

Want to see what each one is about? If you haven't read the book, it's essential that you get out a pencil and paper to find out how it can help you: 

1. Be impeccable with your words

The first principle is to be impeccable with words. 

According to Miguel Ruiz himself, this is the most relevant principle of all because what comes out of our mouths shows what we have in our minds. 

According to the author, words are capable of creating reality, of making a situation a real misery or a blessing, we make that decision. 

With words, we can destroy someone else or we have the possibility to raise their self-esteem so that they can reach their most desired dreams. 

Therefore, we must be very careful when we say things like:

• I am not good at this.

• This situation is stronger than me. 

• I am incapable.

• I can't do it. 

So, if we change this paradigm we will be able to make a 180° turn in our life. 

1. Don't take anything personally

Secondly, it’s very important not to take anything personally. In our day-to-day life we find people who are living their own reality full of difficulties and challenges, so it’s normal for someone to take out their frustration on us. 

Therefore, whenever we encounter this type of situation it’s essential that we understand that this reaction has nothing to do with us, it’s only a reflection of the other person's reality. 

The problem is when we do the opposite, that is, when we take everything personally every time someone says something to us. That's when we start to fight and wear out our patience. 

Once we are immune to the opinions of others we will be incredibly confident. 

2. Assume nothing

In third place, we have the principle of not assuming anything, something that is easy to say but is more complex than it seems. The reality is that human beings are used to assuming all kinds of things and they draw conclusions before time.

From here we create statements about what is happening and we think it’s an absolute truth when the reality is that it’s quite the opposite. In fact, it gets worse when this leads us to have negative thoughts and create problems that could be solved if we didn’t get ahead of the facts. 

So, next time you suspect something, before jumping to conclusions, ask what’s going on. Chances are the answer will surprise you. 

3. Do your best

Last but not least, we should always give our best in order to achieve the goals we set out to achieve. 

The author points out that whatever we have in mind we can achieve it if we put the action together with a plan that allows us to achieve it. 

In this sense, the idea is to give the best of ourselves as long as this does not go to the extremes of leaving aside other aspects of our life such as our personal relationships. 

However, if we do not give our best we will waste our energy, and frustration will begin to appear when we see that our goals are farther away than we would like. Do you see the difference?

How to apply the 4 agreements in the company?

One of the reasons why we love Miguel Ruiz's 4 Agreements is because they are so easy to apply on a day-to-day basis. In fact, every day we are more and more surprised to see that great celebrities have read this book and recommend it to everyone they can. 

So, if you feel that there are problems in your work team, maybe it is time to apply these principles:

1. Positive Communication

Remember when we talked about the importance of words? Well, it's time to put it into practice. Try as much as possible that the words that come out of your mouth are as neat as possible and invite positivism and optimism to give hope to people. 

It's not about being a blind positivist, but at least trying to have a better vibe than the other people around you. The world has enough problems without the need of making them worse, so if we change our perspective it's likely that everything will start to get better. 

So, communicate positively with your team and watch everything start to improve. 

2. Celebrate diversity

On the other hand, it’s very important to celebrate diversity of opinion. When we talk about not taking anything personally, it's about understanding that everyone has their own point of view and that has nothing to do with us. 

Every head is a world unto itself, so the important thing is to embrace this perspective and value every opinion of everyone in your organization in order to move forward according to the plans you set out. 

Understanding that everyone has their own difficulties will make us see the world from a different point of view. 

3. Promote empathy

Third, if we take into account the principle of avoiding assumptions, we must promote empathy and a healthy environment at all times. 

Assumptions are extremely harmful in any relationship, and work relationships are no exception. Imagine that a member of your team is late and you immediately go to his workplace to complain about his absence. 

What do you think would happen? Depending on how the person feels, he might defend his position even though he knows he did wrong. 

That's why before we assume, we should ask. Maybe your partner had a car accident, is running late, or has a problem at home. Start this way and you will see how everything improves significantly. 

4. Achieve balance

It's true that it's essential to give our best at all times, but the idea is not to have nothing left in the fuel tank. Going to the extremes would not be good for our lives. 

At the end of the day, balance is key. The idea is that work and other areas complement each other, so if by neglecting, everything will start to fall apart. 

How to reach your full potential?

Do you want to reach your full potential in both your personal and work life? It’s definitely time to apply the 4 agreements to our day-to-day lives to reach that point b that we set for ourselves.  

Achieving harmony and peace of mind is possible, but for that, it’s essential to take into account the following tips: 

1. Recognize what’s in your mind

First of all, we must recognize what we have in our minds. We have to identify the thought patterns that control our behavior in general. 

What comes out of our mouth comes from what we have in our mind, so if we want to change on the outside we must first modify what we have on the inside. 

So, if the words we emit are hateful or pessimistic, maybe it’s time to change the information we put in our heads. It’s likely that we are consuming the wrong content. 

Once we do that, everything will start to improve. 

2. Forgive those who hurt you

How many people have hurt you directly or indirectly in the course of your life? Surely many, and in the end all human beings you get to know have an objective, but all have the goal of making you grow as a person. 

Well, it’s normal that as time goes by we develop some kind of resentment with what made us feel bad at some point. However, this feeling must be completely discarded if we want to have peace with ourselves. 

Forgive all those who hurt you, remember that everyone gives what they have inside, do not take it personally, and move forward. Once you do, everything will start to get better. 

3. Prepare yourself for death

Last and not least we have the fact that death will come at some point, this is something inevitable. So, if we want to have peace with ourselves it’s a good idea to understand that this is the safest thing in the world, so we will leave everything in the hands of God or the superior being you believe in. 

Do this and you will realize how harmony will come into your life and you will begin to live each day as if it were your last. 

Reasons to read the 4 agreements

Surely at some point, you have heard about the title of this book. The reality is that it’s one of the most important personal growth books of all, so much so that it’s recommended among great leaders around the world as a manual to improve all our relationships. 

One of the reasons for its popularity is its readability, and unlike other books in the field, this book is much easier to read than people think. Miguel Ruiz spent a lot of time choosing the right words so that everyone could digest its content. 

From this point on, anyone who wants to improve their personal growth can read it without major inconveniences. Everything is done by the author in several facets so that you do not get bored, plus he uses different literary resources that allow us to recreate ourselves through analogies that reflect our day-to-day life.

His teachings can be applied from the first paragraph and give us examples that apply to practically any area of life. 

That’s why we wanted to write this article, so you can see how you can conquer your dreams through harmony and peace. Day-to-day life has the ability to absorb the energy of many people, so it’s essential to have an open mind to achieve our goals. 

Miguel Ruiz is an author born in 1952 who specializes in spiritualist niches and has proven to be one of the most influential speakers in all of Latin America. His book, The 4 Agreements, was published in 1997 and has sold over four million units worldwide. 

His popularity is such that he was featured on the Oprah Show, which demonstrates the impact this work has had. There is no doubt that this is a document that you will have to read. 

And are you ready to apply the principles of the 4 agreements?