I’m fresh back from the Grand Union Canal, and a few days on a barge with family. It was one of those beautifully simple trips. Board games, tiny boat-oven pizzas, no screens (at least for the adults!), just a lot of laughing. And somewhere in the middle of steering through a pitch-black, 40-minute-long canal tunnel (whilst getting drenched by freezing water because I, naturally, decided I didn’t need my waterproofs), my brother-in-law Jeremy and I got into one of those conversations.

The unexpectedly deep kind where you end up talking about what it actually means to be present. And it reminded me of something my dad said towards the end of his life that has stayed with me ever since. He was completely bedbound, hadn’t been out of bed for a couple of years, and when I asked him if he was bored, he looked at me like I’d lost the plot. “Bored? Never.” He explained that he’d often pick a moment from his life, his fighter pilot training in Canada, or when he and my mum first married, or a family holiday, and he’d transport himself right back into it. He could relive every vivid detail because he’d actually been in those moments when they were happening.

And that’s what got me thinking about how we live now. We’ve built an entire culture around not being present. We’re scrolling through other people’s lives, capturing everything on camera, filtering, curating, archiving, doing everything except actually being there as we create the memory. I’m not exempt from this, by the way - I’m recording this podcast in the hope that you’ll stop what you’re doing and give me your attention, so let’s not pretend I’m above it.

But we do get to choose. That’s the point. We get to choose where we place our attention, and right now I think most of us are giving it away without even realising. So this episode is an invitation. Leave your phone in another room for an hour. Eat a meal without a screen. Go for a walk without your headphones in. Because at the end of our lives, it won’t be our follower count or our content archive that’s left. It’ll be what we were paying attention to. The things we loved. The people we loved. Let’s make sure we actually let ourselves know it while we have the chance.

This episode is based on my full Substack essay:

Check out digital home on Substack: ReWild with Gill Moakes

ReWild Your Business is a global top 3% podcast. If this episode resonated with you, please could you leave a review - it means the world.

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I’ve been in a seriously creative season lately. Writing, thinking, meditating, doing all the things that for me are the work, and also, if I’m honest, feeling a bit guilty about it. The newsletter that slipped. The freebie that’s been sitting waiting for an email sequence I haven’t got round to writing. You know how it goes.

And then my sister-in-law asked me one simple question that stopped me in my tracks.

“What would feel good today?”

That’s it. Five words. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since…

What this episode is really about

When she said it, I realised I’d been completely disconnecting from my body’s signals between my morning and evening practices. You see, I have these lovely bookends to my day, meditation, journaling, skincare in bed, but between those mindful bookends, I’d been just cracking on, forcing myself through whatever I think I should be doing, regardless of whether it’s a match for the energy I actually have.

And then I’m making myself wrong when it doesn’t go well.

This episode is me unpacking why that question hit so hard, and what it’s got me thinking about in terms of how we all manage our energy, our attention, and our relationship with our own intuition - our wise inner voice.

This episode covers:

* Why creative seasons can feel like a double-edged sword (and why that guilt is worth examining)

* The problem with “future casting” - loading so much consequence onto today’s small decisions that you’re living a year ahead instead of right now

* How “shoulding yourself in the foot” gradually disconnects you from your intuition

* A simple habit-stacking idea for checking in with your energy throughout the day, not just morning and evening

* The difference between genuine procrastination and forcing yourself to do something that’s just not a match for today (you do know the difference, I promise)

The invitation

Before you attack your to-do list today, just pause and ask it. What would feel good today? Not as a life strategy. Just today.

Mentioned in this episode

The Work That Matters - a reflective workbook I’ve created, full of prompts to help you tune back into the work you’re truly here to do. There’s no fancy opt-in page yet (see: creative season, email sequences, the irony is not lost on me), so just drop me an email at gill@gillmoakes.com and I’ll send you the editable PDF straight back. It’d make a lovely thing to work through over Easter if you’re taking a bit of time off.

ReWild Your Business is a global top 3% podcast. If this one resonated, a review goes a long way, thank you SO much x

This one's been gnawing at me for a while. I believe we're living through one of the most significant shifts in history for women, and against the backdrop of everything happening in the world right now, I'm convinced that women are the ones who are going to shape what comes next. But to do that, we have to stop apologising for who we are and what we're being called to do.

We have to stop building lighter, safer, watered-down versions of the work we're really here to do, and start treating our soul's calling not as something indulgent, but as the most strategically intelligent business decision we can make.

If you've been keeping the truest version of your work tucked away for later, waiting until you feel more ready, more established, more sure, this episode is for you...

We Are Living Through a Shift

Against everything that's happening in the world, something is moving beneath our feet. Women are being called to lead, to create meaning, to shape what comes next. And that starts with each of us getting honest about what we're here to do, and refusing to compromise on it any longer.

Your Calling Is Not Indulgent

We've been sold this idea that following your soul's calling is unrealistic... some soft, ethereal concept that doesn't belong in a business conversation. I think it's the exact opposite. Your calling is real. It's the thing that won't leave you alone. And pursuing it isn't the opposite of strategy, it is the strategy.

The Reframe: Soul-Led Work Is Commercially Intelligent

Here's the paradigm shift: you don't choose your calling in spite of wanting to make money. You choose your calling and making money is the side effect. When you do the work that's genuinely aligned with who you are, you bring a depth to your business that simply doesn't exist when you're running the lighter version. That depth becomes magnetic. It's what makes people seek you out, invest at higher levels, and become ambassadors for your work.

Stop Keeping the Real Work for Later

So many women are keeping the truest version of their business hidden away in a Google doc - waiting until they're more established, until the timing's better, until they feel more ready. And later never comes. Or worse, it does, and with it comes the grief for all the time spent on the diluted version.

The Ceiling of Effort-Only Growth

You can build a business on best practices and hard work alone, but there's a ceiling to it. Growth built purely on effort without alignment is innately unsustainable. Real exponential growth, the kind that creates legacy and impact, is built on resonance, on how deep you're willing to go.

A Question to Sit With

If you weren't afraid of failing, and if you weren't afraid of what people would think, what would you build?

Free Resource

I’ve created a free workbook filled with prompts and questions to help you unearth what’s true for you. It’s deep work (I’m not apologising for it, but prepare to confront some demons) and it’s designed to help you take the first step towards doing the work that’s the fullest expression of what you’re here to do…

If you’d like a copy just message me the word 'Workbook' on Substack or Instagram, or email me gill@gillmoakes.com and I’ll send you a copy.