The Pharmacy Business Advice Blog

{Pharmacy Business Leadership} The Owner's Guide to Personal Freedom

Tweet

 

As pharmacy entrepreneurs, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day frustrations of managing people, interacting with unhappy customers and a responding to a family who is constantly requesting your time. Without mindful awareness of your actions and thoughts, it is easy burn out and ultimately become ineffective when interacting with others. 

In his book, The Four Agreements, author Don Miguel Ruiz focuses on the four principles for guiding your personal behavior and awareness. As you begin to reprogram your self-limiting beliefs, you will gain a sense of calm and clarity that will benefit you in all aspects of your life. 

1. Be impeccable with your word.

   This is the first and most important agreement you will make with yourself. You can measure the impeccability of your word by your level of self-love. How much you love yourself and how you feel about yourself is directly proportionate to the quality and integrity of your word. When you are impeccable with your word, you feel good, you feel happy and at peace. Speak with integrity and only say what you mean. 

   Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. You can plant seeds of poison or love by the words you say to yourself and to others. Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement and it becomes part of our belief system. 

2. Don’t take anything personally. 

   When you take things personally it's easy to feel offended and negatively recact to defend yourself. This, in turn, will create conflict. When you make it a strong habit to not take anything personal, you avoid many upsets in your life. Your anger, jealousy, sadness and envy will simply disappear. 

   Make this a habit and you will not need to place your trust in what others say and do. You will only need to trust yourself to make responsible choices. This agreement will allow you to open your heart and make responsible choices without the fear of rejection, guilt or self-judgment. 

3. Don’t make assumptions.

   We often jump the gun and make assumptions on a daily basis. The problem is that we believe these assumptions to be true and then we (over)react. 

   Find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstanding, sadness and drama. We tend to make assumptions in our relationships because we think those who know us well understand how we think. We operate from these assumptions rather than stating clearly what it is we want and need. As a result, we create drama and disppointment amongst our relationships. We assume others think and feel the same way we do; that they have the same point of view. Making assumptions in our personal relationships, (i.e. he'll change when we get married and have kids) will only bring heartache and pain. 

4. Always do your best.

   Your best is going to change from moment to moment and will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
   
   When you overexert yourself, you will spend more energy than required and your best will not be enough. If you do less than your best you subject yourself to judgment, regret, guilt and frustration.
   
   When you always do your best, you take action. Take action because you enjoy it, not so much for the “reward”. Let go of the past and do your best today. By doing your best, you will begin to master the other agreements.

As part of the transformation process you must forgive those who have hurt you. When accepting the four agreements you can choose to forgive because we feel compassion for ourselves.

Take control of your emotions. Not to repress them, but to refrain. To refrain is to hold the emotions and to express them at the ideal moment. When you control your emotions, you can manage your behaviors. 

Lastly, live in the moment as if you may not have another day. Stay present and see the world through loving eyes, free from fear and judgment. Be yourself, not what you think others want you to be. You have a choice each and every day ...  you can choose to be happy rather than choose to be a victim.