Reviews - The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

4.84k reviews for:

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

The Four Agreements, if applied to all of humanity, fails its internal logic. Consider:

1. If everyone were impeccable with their word (Agreement 1) we ought to assume they mean exactly what they say.

2. Agreement 2 states we shouldn’t take anything anyone says personally. And yet if everyone is impeccable with their word, why not deeply consider what they’ve said, as it’s as true as they’ve understood the truth? There is value in their perspective.

3. Further, Agreement 3 states we ought not to make assumptions. Thinking everyone is speaking impeccably or exercising “black magic” (no time to unpack that) are assumptions about others. That means there’s no way to know whether or not people are being honest or deceptive, so should we even try to discern between the two? Do we even owe others the courtesy of our consideration?

4. Last, Agreement 4, always do your best, is laudable, but Agreement 3 throws cold water on it. How can we be sure others are doing their best if we can’t assume? How can others know we’re doing our best if they can’t assume. And still, if everyone is following Agreement 1, shouldn’t I assume we’re all doing our best if people say they are. But careful, Agreement 2, I can’t take what they say personally, so

j_fxy's review against another edition

2.0

inspiring reflective fast-paced

mriii_srk's review against another edition

3.5

hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

vegav2025's review

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

sofialonardo's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

This was a pretty easy read, and the 4 agreements discussed are simple but so profound and powerful. Will definitely be coming back to this book every now and then to remind myself of these principles