#109 - Tim Doyle - What Gnaws At You? — A Better Way To Find Your Direction In Life

There’s a difference between ideas that come and go and the ones that don’t leave you alone. They’re the ones that keep showing up quietly over time. The question is: what gnaws at you? This explores how to recognize that feeling, why it matters more than the goals you think you want, and how following it can change the direction of your life.

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Transcript

There’s a difference between ideas that come and go and the ones that don’t leave you alone. They’re the ones that keep showing up quietly over time. The question is: what gnaws at you? This explores how to recognize that feeling, why it matters more than the goals you think you want, and how following it can change the direction of your life.

I first had the name Soulture about a year ago and I didn't realize that it had been that long. And the reason why I know that is because I had bought a Soulture domain in March of 2025.

And then...

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changed the name of the show in February of 2026. So 11 months and I was like, man, I didn't realize it was that long that I had come up with this, but didn't change it.

And this is where the important lesson lies.

and what I think.

a lot of people can take with them from this experience that I had. And this lesson isn't a statement, but it's a question. And me being a podcast host, that's all I do. I ask questions rather than, I give insights. I'd like to think I give some good insights, but.

What I'm supposed to be doing is asking questions and facilitating insights through those questions. And I think when you want to give people lessons, give them a question so that they can find their own answer for themselves or find their own insights for themselves. So the lesson or the question here.

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that comes from my experience of changing the name of the podcast is.

What gnaws at you?

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I'm going to say that again. What gnaws at you?

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And I've felt this a few different times within my life. Two of them.

come within the podcasting world here. Most recently with changing the name of the podcast, like I said, had it a year ago and I didn't make any changes. I just let it sit with me. I listened to it. I allowed myself to feel it. And I think that's really important. We get so into the mindset of

you gotta make a change, you gotta take action. But when it comes to this conversation and this question of what gnaws at you, it's important to...

Just allow yourself to feel that and live with it.

And then the big one of what gnawed at me was just the podcast in general. The idea of starting a podcast, that gnawed at me for so long.

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And what this?

feeling of something gnawing at you is like, it's not this loud bang that comes and goes, not this loud or this popping light bulb moment. Maybe it is at the start. Maybe that first one is, because that's what it was like when I first came up with the name of Soulcher. It was this light bulb moment of, my gosh, I think that's the name. But then it transitioned into just a very

quiet, subtle, consistent tapping over time. And just continuing to tell me like, hey, I'm still here. This idea is still here. I'm still with you. I'm still tapping at you. And that's what it was like with the podcast as well when I was in that phase of not doing it.

It just kept tapping at me, it just kept gnawing at me. And I learned, okay, there's something here then. If it's gonna continue to stick around, there's something here. If you have an idea for something and it just comes and goes, that's not gnawing at you. Maybe there is something there for you, but not as much as something is just continuing to, you know.

Stick within your body and stick within your head.

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And to reiterate.

when you have that gnawing feeling.

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It doesn't mean that you have to take action right away or make a change within your life right away.

but it does mean.

that you have to allow yourself to be open to it.

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and allow yourself to

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almost like feel the discomfort in a way, or have that discomfort act as a signal for you that there might be something here that I have to continue to tap into.

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And I think it's so easy to get lost into these questions of...

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What's your dream? What are your goals? Where do you want to be in five years? Who do you want to become?

There is a time and a place for those questions, but I think a more important question.

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A question that actually.

gets you thinking in a way that we don't usually think is this question of what gnaws at you?

because that's what you need to tap into.

our goals, our dreams.

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I think those largely live within our head.

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And I think those things.

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They can come and go or we can romanticize them or we can think that we want them, but we really don't know if we actually do or not.

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But what gnaws at you is this thing, like I said, it just continues to tap at you. And goals and dreams can do that.

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Goals and dreams can have that gnawing effect.

but they also can't. So it's important to tap into.

the gnawing rather than what the dream or the goal is.

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And so the question that you'd probably say then is, okay, how do I know what's gnawing at me? Or how do I know what that feeling is like? Or how do I know?

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where I'm supposed to go with it. And this is something pretty interesting. I'm gonna give you like a pretty concrete example that doesn't have to do with work or goals or dreams or accomplishments when it comes to what nausea you.

but it's like a little experiment that you can do to get more so in touch with that physiological feeling that I think is very, very similar. And this is something that I just kind of naturally picked up on maybe a few years back. I do a lot of walking, try to get in, know, 10K steps a day. And I honestly might've picked up on this.

when I came to Austin, Texas for the first time, this might've been my first realization of it, because when I would be back home, I got into a routine of having a walking path or having a route. So I just, I knew where I was going. So, okay.

Stepping outside my front door. I know exactly what the route I'm taking is and I'll be back here in an hour or whatever it would be. When I came to Austin, Texas and when I was in my Airbnb for the couple of weeks, still wanted to go for my daily walks.

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I didn't have a route. I had never been here before.

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So when I was going for a walk, and there'd be a lot of winding roads, lot of intersecting roads in the neighborhood that I had my Airbnb. And so the point that I'm getting at here is that in real time, I was tapping into.

My body.

and thinking, okay, where do I want to go here? And it's like, it feels like I'm being pulled over here. That's honestly what it would feel like. I'd be walking and it works in a metaphorical way. We always think of our life being a journey, being on a path, being pulled in different directions. And when I would be walking, it would feel like that. Like, it feels like I'm being pulled to this road over here.

And I was like, you know what? I feel like that's a pretty similar feeling to how we talk about it in a metaphorical sense when it comes to our goals, our work, having different decisions within life. It seems like a pretty similar physiological feeling to that.

way that I would feel walking the streets of that neighborhood in Austin, Texas.

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And I think that's a similar feeling of when something gnaws at you. It's like,

Feels like I'm being pulled over here. Feels like there's something on that road over here that I'm supposed to walk down and explore and see what's over here. So that's what I would tell you actually. It's very funny. I would say go out for a walk. And this will help you with two things. If you just don't walk.

to begin with, if you don't go for daily walks or if you don't try to get your steps in, walking in general is just gonna help you. But if you do do a lot of walking.

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Try this new method of, I'm not gonna have a route or go somewhere different within your neighborhood and see where your body gets pulled when you have choices to take different routes.

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Because what I would say is, I'm not gonna say I guarantee it, but I believe that when those moments do arise within your life, whether it's a project, a different job, whatever it may be, and you get that gnawing feeling, it'll feel similar to that walking moment, and you'll be able to decipher it in a better way.

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but also just reflect on that. Maybe you do have something with you right now, but you've just never asked yourself this question before, or you've never reflected on this question before, so it's just kind of stayed within you at an unconscious level. But ask yourself that question. What's gnawing at me? Do I have something gnawing at me right now? Have I had something gnawing at me in the past?

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And if something does come to mind.

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That's what you should be tapping into.

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because when you do tap into it.

then you will know.

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in future instances when things gnaw at you again, you'll be able to reflect back on this experience, be like, ooh, that's kind of a similar feeling. And I'm going through that right now.

I have something that's gnawed at me for a little bit.

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And my thought process is like, ooh, this is giving me a similar feeling to what I had when I wanted to start a podcast.

So there must be something here that I'm supposed to be tapping into.

that I'm supposed to be uncovering. And it's not this language of, there's something here that I'm supposed to accomplish, or there's something here that I'm supposed to achieve, or is going to lead to some type of success. It is simply, there is something here that I'm supposed to do. There's something here that I'm supposed to uncover.

And that is what leads you.

that.

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mindset and that energy of curiosity and

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coming at it from that energy of...

Man, if I don't do it, if I don't do it, then it's just gonna continue to gnaw at me and I don't want that.

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And I think when we enter into...

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things with that type of mindset behind it.

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We can then create.

in a way that

I don't think most people...

do nowadays.

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And this works for wherever you are in your life.

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And if I had to reflect back on...

the last few years of my life.

especially, I guess I would say the last five years since it's been five years since I've graduated from college.

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I would reflect on this question of what gnaws at me.

to emphasize the point again, especially for young individuals. It's so easy to get, it's important to ask the questions. It's important to keep yourself grounded in questions because that's how you open yourself up to new avenues within life. But it's so easy to get lost within these questions of.

What am I supposed to do with my life? What do I want to do with my life? Where am I supposed to go? Who am I supposed to be? What are my goals? What is my five-year plan?

Good, yeah, ask yourself those questions. But I would add this other one into the mix. What nausea you?

And with that, I will see you next Wednesday for the next episode. Great interview coming out in person one here in Austin, Texas. Excited to share that conversation and excited to continue to do this work because guess what? This is the work that continues to knot.