The final agreement Don Miguel Ruiz covers in The Four Agreements is “Always Do Your Best”. Like the other agreements, this is one I try to follow even though I don’t always succeed, but an occasional reminder helps get me back on track. Ruiz includes a lot of great reasons as to why we should do our best in that chapter of the book, which makes it easier to put his ideas into action.
After stating that always doing your best will help make the other agreements into habits, Ruiz points out that your best will vary from one moment to another. Your best on a rough day may be equivalent to your worst on an easy day, but you’re on the right track as long as you do your best in every activity. That way, you’ll know you did all you could and won’t feel guilty for doing less than your best or get upset if something doesn’t work out as you’d hoped it would.
And all you have to do is your best. Ruiz warns against trying to do way more than that because you’ll wear yourself out, won’t enjoy your time, and will probably take longer to accomplish your project. You may still get tired from doing your best, but, unlike trying to go over and above, you won’t become resentful of what you’re doing and get depleted as if you were pouring from an empty cup.
I find it easy to do my best with activities I enjoy. I have a strong desire to get better at my hobbies, interests, and passions, so it’s easy for me to do my best with them and work on them regularly. When it comes to things I don’t want to do, however, that’s where I struggle. Fortunately, I’ve found a life hack that helps me get into the mindset to do my best in those activities as well. And, as Ruiz says, I always have a good feeling of satisfaction at the end of a job well done. I often think about this at work and remind myself of how good I’ll feel when I’m finished; this also helps me find enjoyment as I’m doing the work, which I think is critical. I periodically return to this agreement when I feel distraught and don’t want to do much, and it always gives me exactly what I need. “Always Do Your Best” is a great final agreement in this wonderful book and it makes the other ones possible, making it perhaps the most important of them all.