Synthesis & the Four Agreements
Be Impeccable With Your Word
What does “be impeccable with your word” really mean? At first blush, it appears to be a directive about honesty and integrity—be impeccable (pure, flawless, without sin) with your word (what you say) at all times—be honest and truthful, always. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that honesty and integrity are traits to be prized. At the very least, being honest makes life a lot easier in many ways.
For instance, to paraphrase an old saw that I quite like, although I don’t remember where I first heard it, “if you always tell the truth you never have to remember anything.” In other words, if you’re always honest with others, your story is simple, clear, consistent and just plain easier to tell. As I mentioned earlier, simplicity and do-ability are crucial ingredients in using Synthesis to create change that sticks. Being honest also feels good; it feels right and at a very deep, spiritual level, and in Synthesis, how you feel is the ultimate measure of how well your life is working, or not.
Whenever you feel good and right at that very visceral level, you know you’re in energetic alignment with your spirit, which is the most powerful part of your being. So, impeccable honesty (with your word toward others) is truly the best policy and fits right in with some of the key principles of Synthesis. But there is more to it. When Don Miguel advises to be impeccable with your word, he refers to not only how you treat and what you tell others, but also how you treat and what you tell yourself, an absolutely crucial factor in understanding the potential and power of this agreement and of Synthesis.
The Formula for Change
One of the very first activities I conduct with any new client or with new workshop students is to outline the requirements for creating the energy of change through a model I call the Formula for Change. The basic ingredients in this formula are both simple and absolutely critical: sincere desire, commitment, and what I call the triumvirate energies of love, honor and respect for oneself. If you examine these ingredients, it becomes instantly clear that finding and applying them to synthesize change and transformation requires impeccability. Let’s take a closer look.
Desire
The desire to change must be a genuine and sincerely honest desire and it must, must be self-generated. Trying to change something in your life because someone else wants you to or thinks you will be the better for it is simply untenable, pure folly. I receive calls from people all the time who want to come in because someone in their life wants them to change or thinks they should. I never, ever take these cases because I know it will never work on a long-term basis.
Commitment
The commitment you need to bring to the party of changing and empowering your life involves you entering the process willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. If this willingness isn’t impeccable, your chances are not so hot. If it is impeccable, you are starting from a very good place. I always check for this with every new client, and if their commitment isn’t impeccable, that’s one of the first things we work on.
Love, Honor, and Respect (for yourself)
As mentioned above, the word impeccable means “pure and without sin.” A sin is something you do or believe that goes against yourself or others. When we are born, we are all full of vastly abundant, perfectly formed and unconditional love for ourselves and others. We also absolutely honor and respect ourselves in those earl days of life— we know we are perfect little beings, capable of anything; there is no such thing as failure. And then they, whomever they are—the people in our life and modern society itself—slowly beat it out of us so by the time we are fully formed humans most of us are terribly out of love, honor and respect for ourselves. As such, we suffer from a vast array of limiting thoughts and beliefs (sins) against ourselves: I’m not worthy; I’m not good enough, smart enough, sexy enough, talented enough, deserving enough, whatever enough. I am less than… and on and on and on…
This mindset is not only a sin against ourselves, but also against others; by living with these limitations we deprive the world of all we have to offer were we living life to our full potential. We also often express our insecurities by exploiting or demeaning others. In order to change and transform, in order to synthesize the life of our dreams, we MUST expose these self deprecating thoughts, attitudes and beliefs—these sins—for the untruths they are and adapt new, or better, re-connect with the ones we were born with, the ones that reflect the impeccable truth; that we are all equally deserving and capable of living a life of empowerment, happiness, love and abundance in every and any way we desire.
Once this is accomplished and synthesized at both the conscious and subconscious level, you will indeed find it easy and almost effortless to be impeccable with your word, to create he life of your dreams and to learn practical enlightenment, living virtually free of suffering.
Learning to be impeccable with your word— an exercise in Synthesis
The following exercise is designed to help you in becoming impeccable with your word; in consistently choosing thoughts, actions, statements and feelings that serve your growth, well-being and the greater good. It’s a pretty easy exercise that I call the “Show me Proof” or “Earth Round/Erath Flat” technique.
1) Give yourself some time to sit quietly and without distraction. On a piece of paper create a list of all your negatives, all your limiting beliefs, e.g., I’m not worthy of having a lasting relationship, I’m not good enough, smart enough, etc. Whatever they are, write them down; this is a private list so don’t hold anything back.
2) Prioritize your list; place the most limiting self-deprecating, self limiting thought or belief on top, the least important at the bottom.
3) Starting at the top of the list, for each of your limiting beliefs or thought patterns, create a list of facts—FACTS— that offer PROOF that the limiting belief or thought is true. For instance we can prove the Earth is round; we can see it from outer space. How can you prove it? Where is the factual evidence? If you cannot find actual provable facts to support your limitations then they aren’t real; they are an Earth Flat reality. And if your perceived limitations aren’t real, if they are Earth Flat, then why on Earth would you continue to believe them when in fact, their opposite MUST be true. The Earth is round!
If you take your time and do this exercise with integrity, my guess is you won’t get to the bottom of the list because you will realize that none of them are really, actually, factually true; they are almost always all Earth Flat beliefs, and that gives you the basis for changing them. You can begin to consciously live the Earth Round reality you want and deserve. You may need a little assistance, but you can make it happen and the help is out there. This I know, as I see hundreds of clients and students synthesize their new Earth Round reality and agree to become impeccable with their word every year. Thank you, Don Miguel!
Next— “Don’t take anything personally”
Blessings,
Dr. John
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