What Does Be Impeccable With Your Word Mean | The Four Agreements - Part 1
Tera Brown 
Being impeccable with your word looks like this
The four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is a powerful little tool for connecting with yourself and showing up in your life in a healthy way.
The first agreement is the most important one and also the most difficult one to honor ~ Don Miguel Ruiz
Be impeccable with your word.
It sounds so easy, but it’s powerful beyond measure.
“Impeccability means without sin. A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself and your values. You go against yourself when you judge or blame yourself or anyone else for anything. Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable is not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz
Being impeccable with your word looks like this
Speak with Integrity
Your word is the power you have to create.
In the New Testament John it says “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word is God”.
God used His word to create the heavens and the earth and everything here. That is how powerful His word is! Through our word, we manifest everything.
Your word harnesses your creative power to express what you imagine and dream of. It’s how we connect to the divinity inside of each of us and express our creative power.
It is often easier to be impeccable with someone else. For so many reasons we can tell another person we will do something and follow through. It is far more difficult to be impeccable with yourself. Have you ever said, “I’m going to do 30 minutes on the treadmill”, then you get on and think, well, maybe I only need 20 minutes today. Or, the phone rings, shuts off your music, and you are off doing something else for someone else.
When you are impeccable with yourself, everything changes.
With your word you plant a seed. Pay attention to your thoughts, actions, stories. You can plant empowering, uplifting things, or fear, worry and destructive seeds.
Say Only What you mean
When you commit to a few things and then nail them, like saying you are going to do a task and then following through, you are saying what you mean. Most people over promise and underdeliver.
Over promising and under delivering is why ⅘ American businesses go out of business in the first 5 years. This is why many marriages end, relationships fail, and families are estranged. It’s not sustainable. It’s hard to keep track of and hard to remember what you said because it was out of integrity.
How would your life look differently if instead you commit to a few select things, and then go nail them! What could it feel like to commit to some small thing every day? And really show up for that one thing and do it with all your might. The euphoria you would create in your body, endorphins, satisfaction, and self-confidence - could rock your world.
When my kids were little they would ask if we could do something. I didn’t want to say no, I didn’t know how to be impeccable with my word, and so I said Maybe. Maybe isn’t committing to anything. So I didn’t have to show up, and could coast through my day.
When we can find something small to really show up for and commit to doing, we feel accomplished and when that feeling gets into our body, then we start to believe we are finishers, that we can do things! How would your life be different if you made this change?
Learning to not over promise can look like learning how to be selective with your no and emphatic with your yes, in relationships, exercise, in your family, or at work.
Avoid using your word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.
Depending on how you use it, your word can set you free or enslave you.
When I was young we had a family home evening lesson about lies. Lying is another way to not be impeccable with your word. My mom had me stand up and she used a skein of yarn to demonstrate how binding and trapped you can be with lies. It’s hard to remember the story you told to someone about why you did something or what happened and so you are forced to tell another lie. And so it goes, binding you further into the untruth of the moment.
How freeing it is to tell the truth, what is true for you and compassionately allow others to tell their truth too.
Don Miguel Ruiz says using your word in gossip is like using black magic.A few words can change and destroy a life. Do you want to use your words for that?
Have you ever had a friend or neighbor who called just to ask what you know about someone else or something else? Don’t use your words to tear down someone else!
Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love
“You can measure the impeccability of your word with your level of self-love. How much you love yourself and how you feel about yourself are directly proportionate to the quality and integrity of your word. ~ Don Miguel Ruiz
Remember that what you focus on grows. Whether it is stories you tell about yourself or about why someone else did something, those stories are just that. Stories. Your brain makes up a story to help you make sense of what is happening. The problem with that is that you make up the reason or the story. There might be some evidence or a past example of why the story might really be true, but until you are curious enough to ask a question, it’s still just a story.
How would your relationships be different if you were impeccable with your word?