Why Achievement Without Alignment Quietly Steals Our Joy
Written by Karyl Alfred, Transformational Coach, Global Speaker, and Founder of Limitless Life Mastery
Karyl Alfred is a transformational coach, global speaker, and founder of Limitless Life Mastery. She helps ambitious women create soul-aligned abundance in time, wealth, health, and purpose by blending faith, embodied leadership, and proven transformational principles.
I started paying attention to success, how it’s built, who gets to enjoy it, who we pedestal as a people, and what it costs someone to attain it. I was raised believing that hard work led to success. While I worked hard and experienced success, it wasn’t long before I consciously questioned that very tenuous link. I witnessed people who did relatively little and still advanced in their careers. I noticed that parental legacy could pave a pathway. Who you knew could impact success as much as what you knew, and if you didn’t know someone of significance, then your work ethic should make sure they know you. I’m saying there are many pathways to what we define as success, and most of us choose the one we were taught.
What is success without alignment?
But what of this definition of success? That was easy, wealth. Surely the wealthy were successful. Top athletes? Absolutely. We celebrate them, eat the cereals and drink the sports drinks they recommend in the hopes of getting a smattering of the shine they enjoy. Entertainers? Surely this was the pinnacle of success, being celebrated for your gift or talent and making money doing it.
Until you peel back the curtain and notice that what we call success wasn’t their goal. It was the by-product of their call to significance, and often their pathway was painful, unimaginably so. Brilliance born out of a wound, perhaps abandonment or insignificance, such that the little soul promises itself it will be somebody one day. It will be rich or famous, important or powerful. As a people, are we asking the wrong question? Not how might I achieve success, but instead, what is success to me?
It’s money, right?
For many of us, it started off as money. We wanted choices our parents could not easily afford us. We determined we would live with more ease and prosperity, and we signed fully into the capitalist system. Find something of value that you could do well and work hard at it today for the ability to buy nice stuff and hopefully enjoy it one day. At least that’s what I did, and it worked! Fabulous success, even if the hours were long. Publicly admired, even if my soul whispered, this isn’t our highest calling. There would be time for that. Today, we make practical choices that lead to fat bank accounts and fun experiences.
Except your soul won’t stay quiet, even if you’re building a good life. It will send signals so you can see where you are out of alignment. Money, then, can be a symbol of success, but it’s not the true measure of success. Listening to interviews with many people lauded as rich who struggle to find joy, you realise it’s more than money.
Then it’s significance, right?
Significance must be the answer. Public adoration or private appreciation is the secret to success, right? Yet, the public struggles of many celebrities reject the notion that significance alone is the answer. In fact, they share their gift with the world despite the public attention, not because of it.
What then? A fabulous body that is admired by the masses? Perhaps, but all bodies change, and even the most valiant fight against nature’s march of time eventually leads to decline, however slowly.
Here’s the truth!
Any of these is a worldly measure of success, but here’s the truth. Your soul knows. It knows when it’s doing its significant work, the value it came to add to this world. The web of rich relationships we cultivate along the way, the great love, the legacy built through our bloodline, the meaningful contribution that will outlive even your life, and fully embracing a vibrant expression and experience of life. It’s living fully in your truth, expressing your gifts and talents, and creating the results you would love. That is as unique as your thumbprint. Your blueprint for your life is your ‘soulprint’.
Signals from your soul
Most of us have never stopped to ask ourselves, am I building this life because this is what I would love? Have I enrolled myself in someone else’s dream for me? If you have a job or career that pays your bills and a family to support, those golden handcuffs might quiet this question into silence because you might feel there is no space to consider it.
There are signals from your soul that won’t be ignored.
Dis-ease
Unable to sleep a full night
Waking with worry
Waking exhausted at the thought of the day ahead
Dreaming of a different role, job, or direction
A purpose inside of you burning to be birthed
The same fights with the same people (you’re stuck in a loop)
Frustration when nothing is obviously wrong
Unable to truly connect with loved ones
Living on guard all the time
It’s time to let your soul lead
Life is asking you to pause, to sit in the quiet, and listen. The spirit of life that beats your heart and participates with you in the creation of this day is seeking the expansion of your soul’s expression. That’s more than money, significance, or love. Only your soul can hear what’s missing and what must be created by means of your life. Ask yourself this. When you lay your head down for the last time, what would have mattered that you’d experienced, expressed, or given in this life? Write it down and begin.
As Goethe said, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
Ready to live fully from your soulprint? Join the Soulprint Society, a free community to explore what your soul would love and how you create it.
Live your Soulprint. Love your Life. Email me to claim your spot. Spots are limited.
Read more from Karyl Alfred
Karyl Alfred, Transformational Coach, Global Speaker, and Founder of Limitless Life Mastery
Karyl Alfred is a transformational coach, speaker, and founder dedicated to guiding ambitious women to create aligned success without burnout. Certified in transformational principles, she guides women toward sustainable change rooted in purpose, peace, and embodied abundance. Her clients experience quantum shifts in income, health, relationships, and self-trust. As a sought-after global speaker, she delivers soulful, high-impact messages that inspire clarity, courage, and momentum.
