Jennifer Davidson, Reality Check Coaching, based in Portland, Oregon, offers leadership for your career & life goals

I have just returned home from a week at the Co-Active Leadership retreat created by the world-renowned Coaches Training Institute. Let me tell you, it was no picnic. This is a leadership program designed for serious seekers ready to push themselves to the limit.

On the first day everyone was behaving as expected. Cautious, nervous, and pretending to be the most real version of themselves possible. It didn’t take long to discover that everyone was either holding back or over exaggerating reality.

It took about 3 days for everyone to settle in and start showing up as their most authentic selves. I can’t begin to explain how this process happens. I can only share with you that the program works! The timing, the activities, the program leaders…all of it is amazing.

We went from a group of 16 individuals trying to prove themselves as leaders to a team of 16 Raccoons (our “tribe” name) who carried leadership in their veins as if it had been passed down through royal bloodlines. 

This was the first of four retreats I will attend over the next 11 months. I can truly say that I look forward to each of them and the challenges they will bring.

Here is an entry from my final day of Retreat #1:

What will come? The anticipation and excitement are sky high! I will take home with me the Intelligence, Charm, Beauty, Capable, Playful Jen and return home a new whole. I found the power in me. Keeping it strong will need TLC, support for growth, reminders, friends, and LOVE. I truly accept me. I know how I want to show up in the world. I am grateful for starting this journey. I made the first move by choice and I will keep moving on. I am better at ME than anything else. Letting myself fail/granting permission to fall is power. I grew into the original me. What a gift I am to myself, my community, my world, life. I have purpose and I bring what is needed. RISE UP!