Agreement 4: Always Do Your Best (Don Miguels Work Applied to Leadership)

This is part five of a six part blog series of which I'm exploring Don Miguel Ruiz's famous work "The Four Agreements" of which he added one more in a later book "The Fifth Agreement".  If you would like a summary of all the agreements, have a read of this blog.

In this blog, I'm diving deeper into the fourth agreement and its application to Conscious Leadership: Always Do Your Best.

 If you haven't already read about the first agreement,  the second agreement, or the third agreement, click on the links to read them first.

----

Some background first!

The four agreements (of which Don Miguel then added a fifth later on), are in Don's words "offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love."  They are concerned mainly with the agreements that you make with yourself. 

Therefore each agreement takes you deeper into integrity with yourself, which is an essential attribute for any Conscious Leader who is genuinely interested in creating positive change in the world.

The fourth of the agreements, Always Do Your Best, adds to the foundation laid out by Agreement Three: Don't Assume Anything and sets you up for the final agreement:

Agreement Five: Be Sceptical, But Learn To Listen.

So let's dive in.

----

#4 Always Do Your Best

That is make an earnest effort at everything you put your hand to. This ties in with agreement one (Be Impeccable With Your Word) in that if you say that you will do something, don't just do it, do it to the best of your ability.

I want to highlight that this is always about doing your best. "Your best" can only be gauged by you. Only you know what your "best" is. No one else can dictate this for you.

So in this too, you have to be incredibly honest with yourself: Am I really doing my best? Or am I half-arsing it?

You have to be incredibly honest with yourself: Am I really doing my best?

This self-monitoring of your "best", also takes you away from comparing yourself with others. Don't worry about what others are doing or achieving, focus on yourself. Return to yourself.

Your best is your best. Your best is not ever comparable to others. Only you know what your best is.

And your best is an ever-changing point. Every day this will change. Again you need to be honest with yourself - truly, to recognise "What is my best, TODAY? Right now?".

What is my best, TODAY? Right now?

This can be a real act of self-love: to know that what you have to give to do your best today, changes and to honour that.

In today's world, we are obsessed with always doing better - "Improving" (like improvement is a constantly upward scale!). No, It's not.

In today's world, we are obsessed with always doing better: "Improving" (like improvement is a constantly upward scale!). No, It's not.

Improvement over time is what matters. Evolution itself takes surprising twists and turns. It's not linear. I remember a coach of mine saying "as long as you're trending upwards, you're doing great!".

So stop thinking that each day you have to do better. No, this is not what this agreement is saying. It's saying "always do you best, according to your "best" in this moment".

Always do you best, according to your "best" in this moment.

As a Conscious Leader, this is important to master, because it takes the pressure off of you to always perform and be on. It takes away any self-judgement that ultimately just holds you back. It takes away any un-neccessary guilt and stress and comparison-itis that you may be experiencing.

And by doing this, it also takes away any judgement that you have about others - by understanding (and honoring) that your "best" changes, so do you have that understanding (and honoring) that other people's "best" change too.

Overall, what this means is, a less pressured, stressful and guilt-driven workplace. One that honors the ever changing landscape that is inherent by being a human!

Overall, what this means is, a less pressured, stressful and guilt-driven workplace. One that honors the ever changing landscape that is inherent by being a human!

When you can master this for yourself, you will feel fulfilled and inspired - by yourself! And when you master this for yourself, you become the role model of this very important agreement, to your team and circle of influence.

Which when they get on board (because who wouldn't want some of that feeling?) will leave them feeling fulfilled and inspired by themselves. Powerful isn't it?

----

So for your own reflection here are a few questions for you to answer:

• When do I find it easy to do my best? In what situations, with whom and under what circumstances? When do I find it hard?
• In the workplace, where do I fail to apply to do my best? How can I rectify that?
• How can I inspire others to do their best?

• How do you think the application of this agreement in your leadership role would change your influence and impact?
• On a scale of 1-10 how important do you think this agreement is in developing yourself as a leader?
• What resources and support do you need to personally embody this agreement?

Comment below with your answers! I'd love to hear what you have to say!

---

As was the intention of Don Miguel's work, these agreements first are to be applied to oneself, before applying to the outside world. I agree with this approach - I believe that to truly be in integrity, you must first be the embodiment of that which you want to create. This doesn't mean that you have to be perfect to start, it just means that you have to be doing the work, honestly. 

I don't believe that we ever get to the end of our spiritual and personal development, so instead of thinking perfection is the aim, think of your development as a journey of which you are fully committed to doing. Not only for yourself, but for the grand vision of changing this world for the better!

I don't believe that we ever get to the end of our spiritual and personal development, so instead of thinking perfection is the aim, think of your development as a journey of which you are fully committed to doing.

Once you've got a handle on agreement one it's time to work on agreement two which is Don't Take Things Personally.

Remember that each of these agreements are works in progress, with deepening layers as you become more adept and aware. So in your exploration and development, remember that you aren't going backwards if you find yourself working on the same agreement (again!).  You've just found another layer!

Arohanui,

Nik Chung

Ps. I LOVE that you are a Conscious Leader! Want more personalised help to reach your leadership goals? Send me a private message on LinkedIn or email me on nicola@nikchung.com and let's chat!