The fourth agreement: Always do your best.

This agreement is similar to Dr John’s Ace of Spades – learning and working and getting better at something.

And know that your best won’t always be the same – you may be tired, sick, upset and cannot do the same as when you are refreshed and alert. Doing your best means that it is the action, not the reward, that you focus in. So at work, it is not payday that you focus on, suffering the other days and trying to escape. You focus on the work.

Ruiz says the first three agreements will only work with this agreement. You have to know you will not always be impeccable with your word, you will sometimes take things personally and you will sometimes make assumptions. But you are doing your best! So don’t judge yourself, punish yourself, or feel guilty.

Now time for today’s log:

1. Did I have a laugh today?

Yes, at myself.

2. Did I give someone a hug today?

Yes, my sons.

3. Did I do a relaxation activity, such as read a book, have a bath, light a candle, dream, call someone and have a chat, sit in the sun?

Read the first chapter of a new book in a bubble bath.

4. Did I do something good for someone else or be nice to someone?

Yes, nice and supportive.

Thursday’s mini mission

Today’s mini mission from 356 Less Things is baking goods.

Colleen sets these daily mini missions on a Monday for the whole week.

Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and “fun” for you to achieve some quick decluttering.

Before I get to today’s mission on baking goods, I am going to look at some of my woks and fry pans. They are in the same cupboard but on a higher shelf so easier to look at.

We have 5 woks, with one lid that we never use. So I decluttered the lid and one fry pan.

Why hang onto 5 woks? I was asked this on a forum this morning.

I’m trying to imagine a situation in which you would need 5 woks. Do they wear out quickly? Do you host big dinner parties? Do you have children who are moving out soon?

No. No. And no.

But as all hoarders can, I can justify holding onto 5 woks. At this stage.

Mr Sans bought several of the cheap ones from Asian shops until he fond one he liked that didn’t burn food and heated well. But he kept them all. And as they are really his and he hates throwing anything away, they have all stayed. And all declutterers know, you can’t toss other people’s stuff without them agreeing. I have also promised to myself I won’t nag about his stuff, until I deal with my own which I’m sure annoys him as much as his annoys me.

So we have OH’s favourite wok (a thin Asian one) with 2 spares.

Then more recently we bought my favourite wok (a thick non-stick one from Bessemer), then OH thought he liked my little one but it was too little so he bought a big Bessemer one.

I can’t use the big one as it is too heavy and I won’t use his favourite one as I don’t like the way it moves around on the stove.

QED: 5 woks.