I started reading The Four Agreements with one question in mind.
“How do you make decisions faster?”
For the past 12 months, I’ve been reading about creativity.
Last September, I’d just launched the Book Club.
I spent most of my time reading and writing.
And I reconnected with parts of myself that’d been buried: gardening, cooking and performing arts.
Fast forward to now, and I’ve just come back from a week in Seattle, where I planned part of Amazon’s flagship event: Accelerate.
Over 5,000 sellers gathered to meet Amazon teams, learn about the latest tools, and hear from execs about what’s coming next.
This new job is an excellent fit for my skillset.
It's also asking me to make decisions faster at work and as the host of this Book Club.
The Amazon Spheres in Seattle
Plant What Grows In Your Zone
Before I could accept an offer with Amazon, I had to accept who I was.
That meant recognizing my gifts and doubling down on those.
(Not pivoting based on what others saw in me.)
Self-acceptance meant approaching growth from a place of enhancing what is working instead of “fixing” what’s not.
I learned that while gardening.
Rather than fighting nature to make an East Coast garden grow on my West-facing Texas balcony…
I embraced what thrives in my zone.
It reminds me of what Don Miguel Ruiz writes in The Four Agreements:
“Every human mind is fertile, but only for those kinds of seeds it is prepared for. What is important is to see which kind of seeds our mind is fertile for, and to prepare it to receive the seeds of love.” - pg. 28
I stopped forcing what wouldn't grow, and put my attention on seeds that bloom here.
I planted the Portulaca next to the Cactus last Saturday. While I was in Seattle, it bloomed.
Fast Decisions Come from Self-Trust
Back to my original question: How do you make decisions faster?
Ruiz's answer, as I read it: taking action comes down to self-trust.
Trust you’re making the best decision with the information at hand.
Know you don’t have to judge decisions as right or wrong.
Let go of the inner Judge that says you aren’t perfect.
And accept yourself the way you are.
“The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse.
Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what is to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal.” - pg. 20
It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress.
Making decisions consistent with the person you are becoming requires awareness of the agreements (beliefs) you have, and practicing the ones you want to keep.
That's where the First Agreement comes in: Be Impeccable With Your Word.
If you look at the etymology of the word impeccable, it comes from the Latin words im, meaning without, and pecatus, meaning sin.
To be impeccable is to be without sin.
“When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself…In religious terms, self-rejection is a “mortal sin”, which leads to death. Impeccability, on the other hand leads to life.” - pg. 31
While perfection is not the goal, consistency with your word is.
The faster you get at making small decisions consistent with who you want to be, the faster and more practiced you become with making big decisions.
The Story vs. The Truth
The next time you’re faced with a decision that weighs on you, separate the facts from the fiction.
That's how you clear the mitote (Ruiz's word for the fog of a thousand voices talking at once) that clouds your judgment.
I started doing this several years ago when I freelanced as a copywriter and needed to separate my work from my worth.
It goes like this.
Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle to make two columns.
Label the left side: The story is…
Label the right side: The truth is…
The left is for you to recount in vivid color all the emotions you have around “the thing” and what it means.
When you’ve given yourself a chance to voice everything, move on to the right column.
That’s where you recount the objective truth. Use neutral words. Find evidence.
This simple practice has helped me reframe things to quell anxiety, check my assumptions, and move forward faster.
Give it a try, and let me know if it helps with your decisions!
-Annabel
P.S. Here’s the first letter on this series on the The Four Agreements. There’s another exercise there you might find useful for big picture Q4 planning and decisions.
