My husband started a wonderful tradition of taking his nephews on a special holiday to celebrate their 13th birthday. For this trip, we booked a Houseboat on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe with a group of friends. The car was packed, Pebbles removed from the boot, our nephew installed in the back seat, and excitement was high. Then I received a call that my father was seriously ill. In a sudden change of plans, we returned home, I packed my bags in my own car and headed to Pretoria.

It was a crazy two weeks, that to cut a long story short, involved a father in High Care, a brother in ICU and a nephew, (the older one not on the trip), overnighting in High Care... oh, and a husband on a boat out of cellphone range. Honestly, it is a time I would really rather not experience again. All the patients are recovering and I returned home feeling quite shell shocked and off kilter.

So how does a Life Coach go about restoring her beleaguered spirits after a time like this? I sat down and wrote a short three month goal for myself. After years of coaching, it's a quick and easy process for me, but that is not the case for everyone. Sometimes, it's really hard to know what we want especially when a lot of what we experience is happening outside of our control, leaving us feeling helpless.

Lack of control is a particularly painful feeling and in the face of all that we can't change, it's easy to forget the many things we can. Illness is one of the areas where we lose control of what happens to our bodies and at times like this we need to remind ourselves to focus on what IS within our power. Usually, it's more than we realise.

Life Coaching and goal setting are often thought of as something to do when things are more settled, when we feel better or this crisis has passed. But actually the best time to take the metaphorical medicine, is right then, in the midst of the chaos. The time to slow down and figure out who you are and what is important to you, is when you are most out of touch with yourself and your life. That is what I am here for, so if you could use a helping hand, give me a call. It's one of those things you can do!