Is Your Business Based On A Foundation Of Integrity?

    (Keeping Impeccable Agreements)

by Marilou Butcher Roth

Yes of course it is, you say. But let’s look a little closer, looking at integrity from a

    different perspective. I want to address the idea of keeping impeccable agreements in

    both our business and in our personal lives. When you make an agreement with someone,

    be it client or friend you set a wheel in motion that needs to occur for you to experience

    completion. If that agreement is not kept or changed with that individual, an incompletion

    has occurred and you will be left feeling the impact of that incompletion, often times

    judging yourself for what you “should” have done.

Here are some basic guidelines to ensure that you are on track with your own agreements:

    1. Keeping your agreements increases your aliveness rather than thinking of

    agreements as rules people are making you follow.

    2. Keep the agreements you make.

    3. Do not make agreements that you don’t want to make.

    4. Select agreements that you do want to make.

    5. If an agreement is not working, change the agreement.

Now I want you to consider an even juicier aspect of agreements. What happens to the

    agreements you make with yourself? Think about the times you have decided to start a

    new business plan or a well thought out exercise plan. Your intentions are good, you feel

    motivated and ready……but then…..oh, no! Even with the best intentions, your plan

    never gets off the ground or doesn’t go beyond the first one or two tries.

Don’t get me wrong, I know this is not the case in every situation but this does come up

    frequently with many of my clients. So, back to your original agreement- you decide that

    you will take a specific action toward a desired goal (make an agreement) and then the

    action never takes place. How do you feel overall about yourself at this point? If you

    were to gauge your self worth, how high would you rate yourself? My guess is, not very

    high.

The consequences of this small lack of action can then permeate other parts of your life.

    When your self worth gauge drops, you may not notice it immediately but part of you

    knows the downward spiral begins. How can you begin to keep your agreements with

    yourself?

Some of my clients are now keeping a small journal for this very purpose. They make

    their agreement with themselves by determining the appropriate action step that will take

    them towards their desired goal. If the occasion occurs that they find themselves not

    wanting to complete the step, they physically go to their journal and change the

    agreement with themselves to another time or choose not to do it at all. At this point they

    also write down what their “excuse” is i.e. “I’m too tired”, “I had to go show a house”, etc.

    By tracking your agreements you become more conscious of your choices and strengthen your ability to follow through with you own steps, thus keeping your agreement with yourself and others.