Life Is What Happens When You Are Making Other Plans...
- Tea Kinsington
- Mar 7
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 8
As the saying goes.
A Short Tale of Setting Goals, a Health Crisis, and a Change in Direction, another Change... and... Rediscovering my Inner Dinosaur.
I discovered Leonie Dawson’s Goal Setting Books while I was in school for health coaching. At the time, I was incredibly sick—trapped in a constant state of anaphylaxis without understanding why. I felt like I was dying, I was losing foods one by one, and unable to keep a job for two years. My Etsy shop wasn’t paying rent, and I was desperately trying to create something I could do from home.
Years Later, I would be diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, POTS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a galbladder aissue, and a host of autoimmune conditions. But back then, all I knew was that my body was failing me, and doctors didn’t have answers.
I had dreams. I had goals. And I was terrified I wouldn’t be around long enough to achieve them.
One day, I made the decision to go to Chicago to see my family and report on the Gluten-Free & Allergen-Friendly Expo as a blogger. In my heart, I worried it could be the last time I’d see them. I didn’t know how everything would work out, but I was resolute.
Around Christmas, I visited the doctor with locked and stiff joints, only to be told she suspected neurotoxin exposure. I was in constant pain, far from my family, barely able to function. Driving to my appointments was a struggle.
Then, my world completely unraveled. Just days later, I lost a baby. When my family visited for the holidays, I tried to hold it together, but when they left, I hit my lowest point. I wasn’t sure how to keep going.
Someone remembered that the Leonie Dawson Goal Planning Workbook was on my Christmas list...
I opened it, and for the first time in a long while, I felt a spark of hope. I spent the next few weeks dreaming, planning, and setting goals. Something inside me shifted. I felt My Inner Dinosaur, TeaZilla Making A Comeback! I took things moment by moment, day by day. I told myself I could make it through January. Then February...
February arrived, and I felt ready for a change of pace.
I tried working from an office once more—until one morning, on my way to work, I was involved in an accident at a stoplight. I lost consciousness and suffered a concussion, several herniated discs, a dislocated shoulder, a jammed and broken toe, and a serious knee injury
I needed time off to heal. But life had other plans.
A few weeks later, my service dog, Zeus, was diagnosed with heart failure.
Then I caught a cold that turned into something unrelenting.
My symptoms escalated—hives, dermatographia, angioedema, struggling to breathe. I started carrying EpiPens and a rescue inhaler. We began treating it as a mast cell disorder, which helped, but I could no longer work around people. I was isolated at home, trying to figure out my next steps while constantly going into anaphylaxis for reasons we couldn’t understand.
Despite everything, I held onto my Chicago trip. I used my goal-setting skills to plan every detail—traveling with a service dog, my own food, medications, a nebulizer, Zeus’s heart meds. I wore a mask through security, carried stacks of medical paperwork, and hoped for the best.
The trip was incredible. We had fun at the expo—even if, on the first day, I was wheeled out on a stretcher by paramedics. But something unexpected happened. As the days passed, my reactions became less severe. I started eating more foods.
Then we went home, and things got worse.
One day, I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and never returned home. The ER didn’t know what to do with me. Doctors wore heavy fragrances that triggered my reactions. The hospital itself was a minefield of scented soaps, cleaning products, and A "Signature Fragrance." They ended up putting me in a glass room with bottled water and called my doctor to pick me up. I had nowhere to go.
We stayed at my doctor’s home for a month, attempting to determine our next steps. During this time, we couldn't enter our apartment as it was worsening my health—there was black mold in the vents, unusual particles in the air, and a water supply that turned everything pink. To make matters worse, we were beneath Disney’s nightly firework residue. My body was deteriorating.
There was only one choice: leave everything behind and start over.
On July 4th, we packed what was left of our lives into a 25-foot moving truck, hauling our VW Beetle behind us, and drove across the country to safety.
Looking back, I don’t know if I would have taken that leap—becoming a wellness blogger, traveling to Chicago—if I hadn’t discovered that goal-setting book.
I had already given up.
That book gave me the push I needed to keep dreaming, to keep planning, to keep adapting when things fell apart. Even though my original plan didn’t go as expected, it Helped me pivot, replan, and rebuild, over and over again, until I found my way forward.
I’ve been using Leonie Dawson’s books ever since, and they’ve helped me accomplish so much—as a holistic health coach, a blogger, professional product tester, and now a radio show host. They gave me the structure and motivation to keep pushing forward, even when the path wasn’t clear.
Joining the Academy was another game-changer. It gave me the tools and confidence to take even bigger steps toward my dreams, turning ideas into reality. If you’re ready to set bold goals and make real progress, these books and resources are a fantastic place to start!
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Thank you so much!
I am grateful for you,
I hope your day is delightful!
Peace, Love & Cosmic Bunny Rabbits!
-Tea
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