The Four Agreements

I've never really been one to live by agreements or anything else.  I don't follow any particular code.  None of these agreements seems to add up to much as I see them.  Who are they agreements with?  I try to keep my word with people, and I try hard not to lie unless it's absolutely necessary, if that's what it means by 'impeccable'.  I try not to take things personally, but sometimes I just can't help it, and especially is someone says something patronising or untrue to me or about me.  People so love to make judgments, and I take that personally.  But minor things I can pass off.  I also try not to make assumptions, and I take it personally when people make assumptions about me, and think I'm a low achiever or something because I do low paid work and don't have a profession.  I always try to do my best at what I do, but why would I want to do otherwise?  I can't deliberately do something badly because there would be no point.  I just won't do it.  I think I'd add one to the list.  Always maintain a healthy degree of cynicism.  I've always found it to help me in life, having spent so much of the early part of it being taken for a ride by people.  I've rarely found a person who wanted to know me for anything other than for something they can gain out of it.  I don't mean friendship.  Maybe I've just been unlucky, though.

I haven't read any inspiring books lately, but I'm about to start John Lydon's autobiography 'Anger is an Energy'.  Just the title says it for me.  I loved punk, and still do.  When he went on the BBC and swore, my world suddenly opened up.  Punk was something I could at last identify with.  Ok, Lydon sold out a long time ago.  But I agree with him.  Anger is definitely an energy.  Righteous anger, correctly focused and not deliberately damaging.  That's inspiring.  And there's so much to be angry about in this world today.

I've never really been one to live by agreements or anything else.  I don't follow any particular code.  None of these agreements seems to add up to much as I see them.  Who are they agreements with?  I try to keep my word with people, and I try hard not to lie unless it's absolutely necessary, if that's what it means by 'impeccable'.  I try not to take things personally, but sometimes I just can't help it, and especially is someone says something patronising or untrue to me or about me.  People so love to make judgments, and I take that personally.  But minor things I can pass off.  I also try not to make assumptions, and I take it personally when people make assumptions about me, and think I'm a low achiever or something because I do low paid work and don't have a profession.  I always try to do my best at what I do, but why would I want to do otherwise?  I can't deliberately do something badly because there would be no point.  I just won't do it.  I think I'd add one to the list.  Always maintain a healthy degree of cynicism.  I've always found it to help me in life, having spent so much of the early part of it being taken for a ride by people.  I've rarely found a person who wanted to know me for anything other than for something they can gain out of it.  I don't mean friendship.  Maybe I've just been unlucky, though.

I haven't read any inspiring books lately, but I'm about to start John Lydon's autobiography 'Anger is an Energy'.  Just the title says it for me.  I loved punk, and still do.  When he went on the BBC and swore, my world suddenly opened up.  Punk was something I could at last identify with.  Ok, Lydon sold out a long time ago.  But I agree with him.  Anger is definitely an energy.  Righteous anger, correctly focused and not deliberately damaging.  That's inspiring.  And there's so much to be angry about in this world today.

It was the sheer strength of the anger felt at different times in history that helped change the world for the better: The Women's Right's movement; The Civil Rights movement ... 

Where would we be today if all of these people had stopped at writing polite letters and having hope that things might improve one day? Sometimes anger, even the destructive sort, is the best catalyst for change.  

That’s an agreement right there ~ I don’t follow any particular code! If you read the book and followed the instructions, you would find out what they add up to, which is freedom from all suffering, emancipation from the prisons we create, bliss and happiness and anything and everything you could ever want in this magnificent and abundant universe. 

Anger is a tremendously useful emotion, I agree, like all of our emotions. They are there for our own good, all of them, without fail. 

Thanks for the info on the book. I’ll put it on my reading list, it sounds interesting.