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

Be A KISSpdx Partner!

JD — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:03:09 +0000

KISSpdx 2010 is here! KISSpdx Partner List KISSpdx Partner Form

“Women are a huge part of the workforce and are leading the new economy, but we’re busier and more stressed than ever. Kiss PDX 2010 is an opportunity for professional women like you to join together to achieve both satisfying careers and sustainable lifestyles without compromising one for the other.”

– Jennifer Davidson, KISSpdx Producer

KISS pdx– Keep It Sustainable Sister!, an innovative two-day conference focused on successful career management provides you with strategies for a balanced, sustainable lifestyle through workshops by Portland’s most exciting Innovators in the fields of wealth, health, happiness, and career advancement. Limited to just 60 women to ensure you have a quality experience and individual attention, Kiss PDX 2010 will provide action-oriented advice, camaraderie and self-care in a fun, friendly environment, including opportunities from pampering to peer mentoring, with sessions on Increasing Your Net Worth, The Science of Happiness, Building an Executive Presence, Adding Life to Your Years, and more. Discover how to live a sustainable lifestyle with career, family, health and other needs in balance. Join us May 21-22 for an experience like no other.

Lori Rush Honored by Susan G. Komen!

JD — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:00:33 +0000

Check out Career Services Director, Lori Rush! She received the Strength of Many Award on January 28th from the Oregon & SW Washington Affiliate of Susan G. Komen.

Lori Rush (r) with E.D. Christine McDonald (c)

This is a huge honor and a direct reflection of your ability to unite others. Congratulations Lori! RCC is lucky to have your kind heart and fierce commitment! Thanks for all that you do!

See the full story and Lori’s best friend Shirley Cyr who was also honored for her contributions with the Promise of One Award!

Komen Oregon Press Release

You Are The Difference

JD — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:29:54 +0000

I had an amazing opportunity last week to sit down for a few minutes with Jean Maurer, Presiding Judge Multnomah County Circuit Court, and discuss my ideas for the 2010 women’s event. Maurer’s quick wit and direct style was a clear indication of her vast experience and wisdom.

I had to keep up and have my intentions at the forefront because the meeting was squished between her morning commute and her first court session of the day. I wanted to make sure to ask Maurer what the tipping point would be for her or women in her network. Meaning, what would make you want to sign up vs. not sign up? Maurer responded immediately with the answer, You. She continued, Meeting you makes all the difference.

Wow! I thought to myself. Coming from anyone that would be a compliment, but from a presiding judge…I was honored. It was a perfect reminder that the most powerful weapon, tactic or strategy we have in life is ourselves.

Lesson Learned (for each of us to remember)

You Are The Difference
You Are The Tipping Point
You Have Work To Do In This World….SHOW UP!

Sustainable Leadership Results

JD — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:57:21 +0000

Click to View: SL Results

Paradigm Shift in 2010

JD — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:07:51 +0000

As I was looking forward to this year and pondering the impact I want to have in 2010 serious inspiration sprang up from the famous words of Martin Luther King, Jr. He wisely spoke the following: “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” As many of us so gladly marched out of 2009 it is now time to turn our attention to the adventure and responsibilities ahead. One theme keeps coming to my mind: Paradigm Shift.

Wiktionary Definition of Paradigm Shift:

A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new one.
(US) A radical change in thinking from an accepted point of view to a new belief.

Creating a radical change in thinking. Now that is something to look forward to in 2010! My BIG idea is to create a women’s event that does just this. I want to shift the norm from compartmentalizing our lives into individual boxes marked: work, home, health, family, & friends and create one new box. A new box labeled: LIFE!

I have two simple beliefs:

We shouldn’t have to escape our lives to feel good.
Sustainable means the care is built in with the goals.

I’ll be writing more about this Paradigm Shift and asking for your feedback as my 2010 dream grows. March with me on Twitter & become a fan on facebook!

I hope you are inspired to live your dream in 2010! If you are looking for someone to march with Reality Check Coaching is ready! Contact: jdavidson@realitycheck-coaching.com or 503.206.7001.

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” ~ MLK, JR. (Read more of Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech)

Oregon Teens Spread RESPECT!

JD — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:31:49 +0000

Located right in the Portland, Oregon area: Rosemary Anderson High School and Valley Catholic High School were the first two schools in the Nation to host a student led Respect Rally! Both schools had to plan, organize and execute the entire program using student leadership. Students took to the challenge with fierce commitment and both rallies were a BIG success! The participants followed student instruction, participated fully and most importantly had fun!

Founder of RespectRx, Courtney Macavinta, recently returned from the White House where she was discussing the Respect Rally program and the amazing leadership of these two outstanding Oregon schools! Congratulations to both Rosemary Anderson & Valley Catholic!

Rosemary Anderson Team

Valley Catholic Team

For all of those who said, Teens can’t do this! I can proudly say YOU WERE WRONG!

A huge thanks to the leadership teams at both Rosemary Anderson & Valley Catholic! You are an inspiration to all of us & I’d proudly recruit you on my team any day!

Strongest Life for Women

JD — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:09:41 +0000

Marcus Buckingham just came out with another book about strengths. It is called Find Your Strongest Life - What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently. It only took me a few days to get through the entire book, which is always a plus for me. What I liked about this book compared to some of the others in the genre is that he has you guide yourself to the answer rather than immediately putting you in a box.

The book has you check your gut rather than follow a formula. Marcus gives fantastic real-life examples of women who are living a strong life and how they got there. The main things I took away were:

Trust Your Gut - only you know what makes you feel happy
Emotions Are Clues - notice what things make you feel excited vs. exhausted, happy vs. frustrated.
Find The Flow - notice what activities have you lose track of time and feel like you could do them forever

In the usual Marcus Buckingham style there is an online test. It is pretty quick and it tells you what your Lead and Supporting Roles are. These are the top two roles that support your personal patterns “to feel love and joy and fear and pain.” (p.100). You can take the test at StrongLifeTest.com. It is FREE this time! You don’t have to buy the book to get your results however, I’d encourage you to get a copy so you get the full benefit of the learning.

I strongly recommend this book for all women that want to reconnect with their inner voice. It would also make a perfect gift for a friend’s Birthday or Christmas!

Students Get A Reality Check

JD — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:41:48 +0000

Reality Check Coaching developed a Sustainable Leadership program to help people rewrite current strategies, set clear and distinct goals and create a renewable environment for success. See how Reality Check Coaching is using this program to help local at-risk youth gain leadership skills necessary for the transition from high school to real-life.

Press Release:

Students Get Reality Check

The First 30 Days

JD — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:35:14 +0000

The First 30 Days is written by Ariane de Bonvoisin (say that 3 times fast!). I met her last year in Boston while speaking at the Women’s Conference of Massachusetts. Ariane is bright, funny, charming, and powerful. I read her book and was blown away by number of “Ah-Ha” moments.

The First 30 Days is designed to help people move through change with ease and a positive attitude. Ariane uses personal stories and funny tid-bits to enlighten and support readers as they move through change. Here are my two favorite parts:

Negative thoughts and emotions that pop up and try to resist change are referred to as “Change Demons” (p.106). In order to move from the negative into the positive Ariane provides the following antidotes:

Demon to Antidote

Fear to Faith
Doubt to Surrender
Impatience to Endurance
Blame to Honesty
Guilt to Forgiveness
Shame to Honor

My next favorite section asks the question, Do you want to be an eagle or a duck? Here are the behaviors listed for each (p.138):

Ducks

feels powerless
act like the victim
believe they can’t rise above something
do what everyone else does
quack (talk) a lot
congregate in groups
are quick and reactive
can’t be alone

Eagles

feel powerful
soar above emotions and turmoil
don’t follow the rules
are resourceful
do things differently
have high standards
rely on all types of help and resources; without the wind’s resistance, eagles would fall flat on their faces
take their time to decide what to do next
don’t always need to know exactly where they are going
can be alone for a while

So, who do you want to be? An eagle or a duck? You can learn more about Ariane and The First 30 Days at: http://www.first30days.com/ariane/book

Dream to Reality

JD — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:33:30 +0000

Well, I did it! Here is my first eBook. I wrote Dream to Reality because the questions I most often hear are:

How do you take an idea and turn it into a training?
Once you have a dream how do you make it come true?
I can create, but I don’t know how to implement. How do you do it?

So, in honor of all the great dream seekers out there…here is it. My process for reaching goals in business, program development, training, and in life. Click to download Dream to Reality