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| Warrior Work Week 13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the next 4 weeks we will explore the 4 agreements of Miguel Ruiz's book, "The Four Agreements". Although I was not one of the fans of this immensely popular book, I do like the 4 agreements themselves and even though the agreements are the same, the insights and work here will look at them from a different point of view. Miguel Ruiz follows a line of Toltec shaman/warriors but the 4 agreements are basic principles that can be found in all warrior traditions and even in modern business courses in various forms. One of the goals of warrior work is to take the principles of various warrior traditions and apply or adapt them to whatever roles or worlds you are navigating through. The warrior's way is a philosophical, pragmatic paradigm. Contemplate, meditate, utilize and test the material and see what you create in yourself and around you on a daily basis. Use the pressure of your worlds to build your knowledge, power and center and to bring out the gifts inside of you. Agreement 1: Be Impeccable with your Words The word impeccable means "without sin, without flaw". The word sin is a Greek archery term meaning "to miss the mark". An archer shooting towards a target or goal misses or "sins" by various degrees. Christians use the term sin quite frequently but the funny or sad thing is that when an archer misses the target he refocuses on the goal and re-shoots whereas "Christians" often stay focused on the miss. To focus on how much you miss the various marks or goals of your life is an indulgent action and the word indulge means "to make weak". All religions have love as their primary goal and yet how impeccable are the various leaders with their words and how well do they hit the target of promoting love as their primary goal? What are your goals or the goal of your company and how well do you or your company use words to share and move towards those goals? Our words are like arrows, our self talk is like arrows - the pictogram for knowing or knowledge is an arrow and a mouth. This week contemplate where your words are shooting those around you and yourself. What goals are your words shooting towards? Contemplate the words of the people around you. Don't judge their words but ask them what the goals of their words are? What target or goal are they shooting towards? A person may be "honest" and say something that is "true" and use, "I was just being honest" to justify what they say but their intent may be mean spirited, "to shoot that other person down with their words" and create an advantage for themselves. Be soft as you ask "what was/is your goal in saying that?" so they don't become defensive or offensive(they may anyway). I have had numerous students who have used this technique and were amazed at the change the other person chose to make in their words or behavior after "light" was shed on their intent. One other important point; you can't hit a goal or target you don't have so set some goals to shoot towards with your words. Also be aware that a lot of people use words to fill space - work on listening to what their words are telling you but also listen to their body language, tone of voice, proximity and all the non verbal cues. Even though we want to be impeccable with our words, a lot of people use words to deceive and confuse. Listen to what they do and not only what they say. "when all is said and done, there is more said than done" (denotes that power lies in action) "what is your word worth?" "I know that's what I said but that's not what I meant" (a word can paint a number of pictures which we often interpret the way we want it to be) "the white man speaks with a forked tongue" (says one thing but means another - paints one picture but actually intends another - deceptive tool) "when you miss the target, do you get back on task or focus on the miss?" "be impeccable with your actions" By Peter Hill, Copyright 2004 www.getittogether.net Week 14>> |