Growing a business, taking care of family, and everything else in daily life can be all-consuming. You might feel like you don’t have enough time or resources. Life turns into an exercise in keeping your head above water. Of course, you don’t feel like that every day, you have pockets of joy and moments of inner peace, but wouldn’t you love to have more joy, more inner peace, and more trust that everything is truly working out for you? Yes, I felt and feel the same way.

(In the photo above, I was experiencing joy, love, and peace spending time outside and enjoying the fall leaves in the mountains in my beautiful state of Colorado).

I realized in my twenties that life was so much more than achievements, education, image, etc. I knew on a soul level that my spiritual connection was the key to inner peace, joy, love, and the best and highest good for me and those around me.

When I look at my life, I have spent a lot of it striving and being driven. I am naturally competitive (or maybe it was just conditioning) but I like winning, I like the feeling of project completion. I like the feeling of success. But when I look at my whole life, the things that I felt would bring happiness often turned out to be mere achievements. They were nice things, but they weren’t things that gave me a feeling of deep joy and contentment.

What was I looking for anyway? I was searching for peace, meaning, and a sense of “rightness”.  When I get off track and start looking outside of myself and my connection to God, I start feeling empty and lost. Thankfully, now, I spend moments or minutes feeling lost or empty and then I plug back into joy, love, and inner peace.

When I am quietly reflecting, I ask, “Who am I with everything stripped away? What if I wasn’t attached to anything?These questions bring a rush of relief, ease, flow, and peace. I mentally let go of things that used to seem so important: Having many degrees, a perfect family, the “right” vacations, the “right hobbies”, etc.

This doesn’t mean that education isn’t important. But education is a path to something- it’s not the something. The family is important too, but families are messy- accepting and loving all parts of a family is so much more loving that striving to maintain perfection. Traveling is meant to be enjoyed, not put on a pedestal. Hobbies are fun, they don’t need to be status symbols.

Hear me clearly, it’s okay and fun to like nice things and to appreciate money and achievement, just don’t elevate them above your inner peace, joy, and love or think they are the path to inner contentment. In fact, when I am looking at and embracing joy and love first, everything else comes easier and I seem to enjoy it more because I am not worried about losing what I accumulated.

How do I plug in? I have an active journaling process and a constant dialogue of conversation with God.  I release fear and judgment by inviting in love and understanding.

“Judgment, like other devices by which the world of illusions is maintained, is totally misunderstood by the world.  It is actually confused with wisdom, and substitutes for truth.” A Course in Miracles

Judging myself and others contribute nothing good. Judging is sneaky. We feel like we might be just looking for better customer service or trying to help other people, but you know you are in judgment when you just don’t feel good. It’s a disconnected feeling. We live in a society that quickly and sometimes viciously judges. Take a moment and notice criticism directed at celebrities to see how comfortable people have become with judging.

Are you critical of others or easily annoyed by others? Notice if this is true judgment. What would you be like if you didn’t practice judgment? What if anytime you felt like judging someone or yourself, you paused and asked how you could practice more love, joy, and understanding.

When you release judgment, people feel this. They feel that you are accepting and loving them. Have you ever been around a person and you could feel judgment pouring from them even though their words may have been kind?

Cleaning up this area of your life will help you tap into the true spirit of success which is a loving and grounded path to creating and unfolding your heart’s wishes.

“Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, there is not perfect love. But, only perfect love exists. If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist.” A Course in Miracles

Are you ready to invite in more love and release fear and judgment?  It’s as simple as consciously choosing love over fear and judgment and it’s a decision that you make each time you feel fear and judgment.

If you enjoyed this, you will love my free guide on up-leveling your mindset.

Sheri Kaye Hoff

Coach, Trainer, and Author, Sheri Kaye Hoff, is a Business Coach known for inspiring massive action and a catalyst for personal and business growth, joy, and profits in a way that is fun, relaxing, and fulfilling, Sheri inspires people to do the work they love and make more money. Sheri helps business owners and professionals to relax into success. She uses both spiritual and practical techniques to obliterate blocks and create dramatic change. She is a business, leadership, happiness, and inner game expert. She has overcome nearly dying, and the loss of her brother at an early age. She has made it her life mission to discover the keys to happiness and success and then share them with her clients and community. Learn More About Sheri