“Courage is a door that can only be opened from the inside.”
                                                              By: Terry Neil

Karen Erickson, Everyday Hero

This month’s Everyday Hero has been through a lot of obstacles in her life, but never realized who she really was until she put herself through coaching. Karen Erickson has been an extraordinary mother to her 2 children, who are now 33 and 36 years old while continuing to grow and develop herself. She works for a nonprofit organization called ‘Care Wisconsin’ where she coordinates the care of people with disabilities who live in their homes.

Karen started coaching a couple of years ago and put herself through the Bravehearts Leadership Program in 2008. Her life before she started coaching had a lot of unresolved issues and she felt no direction in her life. There was a lack of communication with everyone in her life and she was really unfulfilled; not knowing what she wanted out of life and just taking whatever came her way; never asking for what she wanted.

One of the biggest insights for Karen was that she could do things and that she was good enough. She is more self-expressed and creative and really got that she did have something to contribute. She feels like she is a valuable human being now as she always felt that she didn’t have anything to offer.

Being a leader of her own life, recognizing and overcoming her fears and doing it anyway was the biggest breakthrough that she has had. There is a self-acceptance there that was never there before. As she went through the coaching she took herself through many different processes to recognize how she had been living her life and that she really did have a choice in making her future be whatever she wanted it to be.

Karen has always had a desire to be a ‘Big Sister’ with the ‘Big Brother, Big Sister’ organization and as of 2008, she now has a little sister named Quanna who she enjoys her time with. She feels that she has something to offer Quanna and does a lot of activities involving self-expression and creativity.

To keep herself consistently moving forward in her life she has put structures in place to become better organized. She focuses on her ‘To Do’ lists everyday by blocking off time slots to accomplish things. She utilizes the ‘Big List’ that we use with our coaching clients to help keep the promises and practices in place.

Life is an adventure now and something that she looks forward to. It has more joy and happiness in it and she is far more fulfilled. She lives inside her Vision everyday: Life lived in abundance, peace, love, fun and play. She has lost weight and more importantly has improved her overall health and well-being. She has become more productive in her job, has better communication with everyone, completed the Bravehearts Leadership program  and became debt free! One of the other big accomplishments is becoming a Big Sister and joining two different committees at work that focus on bettering the workplace and giving back to the community.

Karen’s future plans include looking for more ways to give back to her community, traveling the world, continuing with better health and supporting others in their health and moving to California. Karen is an amazing person that I am not only proud to call my mom, but proud to call this month’s Everyday Hero.