Challenge Day 20: Impeccable Word

As this month of challenges winds down, the challenges are ramping up.  I’ve been fascinated with The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book by don Miguel Ruiz for a few years now.  The next few days of challenges are directly related to gaining mastery in these four practices to dramatically change my life.

The Four Agreements:

1. Be Impeccable with your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Today’s challenge: For the next four days, work on mastery of each one of The Four Agreements.  Challenge yourself to each Agreement each day and practice them until the end of the month.  Take on the first one today.  Be impeccable with your word.  Speak with integrity.  Say only what you mean.  Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.  Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

This is can be a tough challenge for a sarcastic, self-effacing jokester such as myself.  For the rest of the month, I will pay attention to what comes out of my mouth.   I will use my words to ask for exactly what I want and build the kind of world I want to live in.  I’ll have to examine the place where my jokes fit in but in the meantime, I’m ready to live into the power of the words that slip out of my mouth.

Today’s victory: I finally realized how important it is to be in regular contact with my family that’s scattered across 3 continents.  I learned that compassion is healing when people are hurting .  Where there is pain all you can do is radiate love until the person crawls out into the light.

Gratitude: I am grateful for  my two brothers.  They have grown into incredible men.  I pray to marry a man as amazing as them.  My heart swells when I look and think about them.  They are mine forever and likewise.

On the horizon: The personal