Starting with your MOUTH

The power of life and death resides in your mouth.... If I had a penny for every time I have heard that I would never work again. It's a very powerful and cryptic, but a resoundingly true statement. You can create chaos and comfort from the things "you say". I can think of the ways I've been discouraged and encouraged in the matter of a couple of words. It makes you wonder how many people you have validated or victimized from saying whatever you had to say just because you could say it. Or maybe knowing that someone needed  to hear a specific message from you and you either offered a word or neglected to give it. Or this; a personal pet peeve of mine, saying you will call/email/text and neglecting to do anything at all. Not offering a word in these cases is almost like speaking death, death to your credibility. My thoughts are if you can't do what you say, you will have issues with telling me the truth.  Words, or the lack thereof, are so powerful.  Simple enough, right?

My cousin is a life coach and several years ago, probably well before I graduated college, she recommended a book called "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz. In this book there are four things you as the reader should agree to do to create "A Better Me" [meaning you]. My cousin didn't realize how this book would be read and re-read because the message is timeless and even as a very young woman I could identify with the message to the point of wanting to live it out. And when I caught myself falling, I could read the book again and instead of falling down, fall in line. The first and most prominent agreement is -Be Impeccable with Your Word.

Being impeccable with your word. Sounds simple, right? Sure it is, but it doesn't just stop with telling the truth and keeping your word. Being impeccable means being "without sin". The word impeccable has a Latin root base that literally translates to "without sin". Directly from the book, it is stated, that "when you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself." You do not reject yourself, rather you embrace what is true about yourself.  To make this short, you don't let words of yourself and others effect what you should think and know about yourself. You also don't use words to hurt other people, because in the long run, this also hurts yourself. You don't gossip, and you don't accept negative speech about yourself. More than not gossiping is not falling into the ever so easy trap of listening to the gossip. You don't repeat negative speech and you keep the confidence of others. When you are impeccable with your word, you avoid letting your mouth get you into trouble. So yes... this is simple enough.

I've had an acquaintance tell me that people will talk about you even if they don't know you and even when they know it is not true what they are saying about you. She is right. This will sadly happen all the time. But accepting what is true about yourself will cause naysayers to falter every time. This is also why Don Miguel Ruiz, in his book, also poses the second agreement as "Don't Take Anything Personally".


Until next time,
KB