Finding your calling: The reality of taking our partner and family with us
It's one thing figuring out your calling in your 20s if you're single, and another when you have a partner and family responsibilities. We are managing different tensions to navigate the path and expectations. Yet, it can be done. In fact, it can be these pressures that create key turning points for us on this journey.
Having my daughter at 36 was a huge turning point for me, as becoming a parent is for many. Two key things happened. The first was Covid hit when she was two years old. The second was the knock-on effect of this lack of support as a new parent meant that my trauma symptoms returned with a vengeance. All my usual support networks to manage the panic spirals were not available.
I was due to return to work at this point as well and had started doing Shiatsu treatments again (bodywork therapy). All I wanted to do was lay down and be the client. I just didn't have the energy to give in such a physical capacity anymore. So when the Covid financial support package came through, I decided to use it in two ways. The first was to upskill and do an EFT diploma online, enabling me to transition into a different kind of therapy work that I could deliver online. The second was to use the money to pay for trauma therapy, which for me was EFT.
The financial tension
At this time we were under a lot of financial pressure because we had lost my salary as a household income. My husband was carrying the burden of that as I was looking after our daughter. We were eating into savings to pay the bills. He agreed to using the money for the training, and I knew I needed therapeutic support. But when it came to leaving my Shiatsu practice completely — by the time the Covid doors were opening and enabling in-person work again — he didn't understand and was really stressed about money.
I said to him, "Look, I just have a hunch that this is a really good idea to take my business in a new direction."
He said, "You need to earn 10k a year — can't you just go work at Tesco's? What are you even going to do with the business?"
But I didn't have the answers for him. I just knew that EFT was the direction I was meant to be taking next. I didn't know who I was meant to work with or how I was going to build the business. It was just a good feeling. I didn't have logical answers yet.
Every time he protested, I said, "Please trust me." I said, "If I can make this work, not only will I earn what we need, but I will have flexible hours around nursery runs and childcare, and I will be really helping people — which is what I want to do." In the end, he rolled his eyes and said okay.
The leap
The pressure was on. I needed to make good. It gave me focus and made me determined. I wasn't showing up for just me anymore — I was showing up for my family. I had a new drive I had never had before. A focus on continuing to get better in myself so that I could be grounded and available as a parent for my daughter. And pressure to financially deliver what I felt was possible at the start of this business.
This is an uncomfortable working ground that I see with other clients too, when it comes to their partners. They have a sense of their calling — the leap they need to take — which might move them into financial insecurity or uncertainty for a period, until success starts to appear and gain traction. It may involve taking a partner or family on a journey to a different way of living entirely. They might be asking for support and trust for a long time as their business or project develops.
This can lead to tension and stress around finances. It's uncomfortable and difficult. We are asking them to take a leap of faith with us, but they're not having the intuitive hits. It takes courage to bet on ourselves and trust ourselves — to have confidence in our intuition and go for it. So with every little win, I shared it with my husband — it was all evidence of the business moving forward and building.
Luckily, by the end of that first year, I had earned what he had asked for. From that point on, he has trusted my intuitive business planning — for the most part! Now he's sick of my year-long visions and planning!
Needing support
Like all families, managing childcare also folds into the mix of pressures when trying to birth your intuitive vision. Luckily, my husband started work early so he could finish early, which enabled me to see slightly later clients, run workshops, and have coaching calls. He flexes to support my business, as my business flexes to support the family.
When I need to receive coaching, do training, or run courses, my first port of call is to talk to him, as I need him to make it happen — so we have to be in agreement. As my business scales with more courses, this is now spilling out to my immediate family too. My mum and sister have been incredibly supportive.
I am very aware of how my intuitive vision is emerging with the support and backing of those around me, plus a lot of childcare planning and time management. My poor family are the unpaid emotional support mentors for my business — propping me up when I'm stressed, encouraging me, and celebrating my wins with me. My husband works from home and is my emotional support colleague. I will wander in like a cat requiring attention every few hours, get my hug, and then head back to work.
I'm also lucky that I have coaches and fellow entrepreneurs on the journey who I chat to and meet up with virtually, to talk about the emotional side as well as the strategic one. When we are following intuitive nudges and trying to do things differently, it's like living life without any handrails — and we all need encouragement, support, and a hug to keep going, because we're human.
When a vision manifests…
There is a tension between having a vision and holding it, and having support with it from our loved ones. I'm usually met with resistance. But I have learned to listen to that calling within me that gives me direction, and to trust it — because even through the difficulty and the challenges, there is an expansion happening that doesn't just benefit me. Each time I trust and it works out, it helps me take the next leap, and it builds the confidence of those around me to trust both me and my process.
A good example of this is the garden cabin I now work from. When we first moved into our house, I immediately had a vision of a workspace in the garden — I had always hated commuting as it drained my energy. The money wasn't there at the time, and my husband said no. But as my business grew, I realised that working from a desk in the living room and seeing trauma clients there had become too much — there was no psychological separation between rest and work. So the cabin finally became the right next step, and this time my husband said yes. It went up, and now instead of paying monthly rent for an office, we have a space that works for both my business and our family.
The bigger picture
Following your calling when you have a family isn't a solo journey — it's a shared one. It requires patience, communication, and a willingness to sit with discomfort, on both sides. The people closest to us may not share our intuition, but they can share our trust — and that trust is built one small win at a time.
In reality, it's messy. It's imperfect. And sometimes it means asking the people you love to believe in something they can't yet see. But when it works — when the vision becomes real — it doesn't just change your life. It changes theirs too. And that, to me, is what makes the leap worth taking.
