I did a couple of things this weekend that reminded me to revisit Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements”. The first agreement “Be impeccable with your word”.
Here are the Four Agreements, and the most important is the agreement we make with ourselves.
The first situation was a misunderstanding on a specified date for a new yoga class. The class kicked off on Saturday, June 1st, and there wasn’t an instructor to lead the class. A phone call with my supervisor starts with his apology for not reminding me about the change in the schedule. Surprised, I said that the class doesn’t start till June 12th. He doesn’t know where that date came from. He’s been swamped with many things and kindly reminded me that going forward, every Saturday, there is a 9:30 am class.
After getting off the call I rechecked the text… Ooops. I made the mistake. It read June 1, 2024. I misread the numbers by stringing the 1-2 together in my first quick glance at the text. Funny thing is that he and I had had in person conversations about the class since he originally notified me by text. I said June 12th to which he didn’t react to.
I called my supervisor quickly, though there was a moment of hesitation, remorse and recoil on my part. I didn’t relish the idea of owning up to the problem. I was being mindless in reading the text in the first place. Not very yogi-like of a yoga teacher. “It’s on me,” I said to him, “I misread your text.” He graciously accepted my apology. We cleared up the air and set the expectations. That also touches on the 2nd agreement – “Don’t make assumptions”. I did the opposite by assuming I was correct on the date. I also stumped on the 4th agreement “Always do your best”.
My Jenga tower just came crashing down, but still partially standing as I was impeccable with my word on that incident.
The second situation was similar – a scheduling conflict. I texted someone to request for rescheduling an important meeting. I was conflicted to give a reason for the request for the change. I was assuming (again) that the person might think my reason as trivial. But, to me the reason was not trivial. I typed the words carefully and explained the situation. I held my breath (sort of) for half an hour. The person responded and said, “let me check the calendar, I will get back to you shortly”.
I felt deeply relieved that the person responded quickly for a Sunday afternoon, and that the request was viable. The best part was I didn’t lie, and that felt extremely good.
I am dedicating this blog in memory of Erica H. Bennett for her original blog post of “The Four Agreements” – https://lafpi.com/2015/05/labor/ . She wrote it on May 29th, 2015. The date was 9 years ago, last Wednesday. Nancy Beverly commented to say she has the Four Agreements posted at her desk. Thank you for your Erica blog. RIP.
