Who Do You Think You Are?

“Who do you think you are?” This wasn’t so much a question as a challenge I heard throughout my early life. It came from a lot of different people (older women, mostly). It stopped me dead in my tracks, for a long time, from honestly living the answer.

When I was 14, my mother died. I could easily say, “passed away”, but I don’t think that covers the experience. She was out biking in the Adirondack Mountains before Mountain Biking was actually a sport, fell off her bike, and hit her head. 10 days later, she was dead. That is as much as I know. The friend that was with her was ahead of her so no one really saw what happened. I don’t believe knowing would make a difference because from then on my life was defined by this moment.

I have never been able to determine if my life would have been better had she lived. I only know that it would have been different. My mother was troubled with her own story on many levels that I will never be able to fully understand, but I always remember her believing in my ability and encouraging me to be, well, me.

Who Do You Think You Are?

Most of my time from age 14 – 34 seemed to be about bumping up against this question, or at least for sure the people who were asking it: aunts, my father’s girlfriends/wives, ‘popular’ girls in high school, and boyfriends from my 20’s and colleagues that I taught with. The crazy part is that on the outside, there was something that would drive me to ‘do things differently’—you would think that I would just shut up and fit in, right? The irony was that I was trying to, but something bigger than me (I’ve come to know it as my purpose) always had me one step off/up-ahead. But inside I was dying a slow, sliding death—questioning myself, mismanaging my money and setting up patterns that would keep me from only going so far…far enough to bump up against that question!

No matter what I said, did, or achieved, the overall feeling I had was that there just wasn’t a seat for me at the table.

I see clearly now that’s why in my 20’s I would eat to feel, not just full, but anything at all; why I would work and work at my job and wait for approval and then even if I got it I couldn’t really let it land.

I didn’t believe I really deserved a seat. I mean, “Who did I think I was?”

When I was 29, I made the first significant change that would begin to transform my life.

I had finished my third year of teaching high school drama and found myself overworked, over-exhausted and overweight—25 pounds to be exact. I couldn’t maintain a romantic relationship to save my life and even though I was working in one of the highest paying school districts in New York State I was broke. I decided that this was not ok. I knew that I needed to feel better. I hit on the idea, “Food is Fuel” and started researching the energetics of food; completely changed the way I ate and lost the weight- all in that summer. I felt great!

Then I went back to work.

I realized that just as my stomach could no longer tolerate food that was not fueling me the rest of my body wasn’t going to settle for mediocre energy either.

The next change to come was with my heart.

Soon after I turned 30 the man I was dating at the time ended our relationship with the words, “I never really loved you.” Ouch. Here’s the kicker, this was the third man in my life that had said those exact words to me—within 2 years. This time I got the message. I was not going to share myself with just anyone and it took 10 months of dark, difficult healing to get to a place where I could trust myself to share my heart. Before I was even ready…I met my future husband. I have learned that just when you think you have it figured out and believe that you are in control the universe sends you something (or someone) to move you to the next level faster than you could go there on your own.

If you are open.

The journey with my husband is ever changing and growing. (He is truly a gift and I am blessed to have such a person to walk through life with.) One of the early lessons I learned from being his life-partner was about using my voice. Just as my stomach would no longer take non-nourishing food and my heart would not be given away in-authentically, my voice was suddenly demanding to be heard.

Since I had believed for so long that I did not deserve to be heard my voice would sometimes work against me and I would find myself yelling, shouting and saying things that I had never dared to say before. This is where the true test of loving partnership was taken. Without my husband’s support and commitment to strengthening our communication, I would not have developed the confidence and belief in my right to be here.

As I was able to say what was on my mind and what I needed more and more—my spirit and soul opened up and I knew that I could no longer be living the work life that I had in the past.

Once I made this decision, life began to move very quickly for me.

The intuitive gifts that I had denied for so long flourished.

My talent to teach, guide, and coach began taking my students and clients to places of major transformation.

I began to really tackle my sense of self-worth.

Even though I was a talented healer and teacher, I would continue to sabotage my own financial success. I was still waiting for a seat at the table—choosing to believe that only doctors, lawyers, celebrities, or business leaders deserved to be sitting there. I would tell myself that I was only put here to be of service and as I would be teaching others to catapult their lives forward…I would struggle to pay my bills.

Then I was given a powerful message from a powerful teacher and coach of my own, “You are the healer of healers.” As I am sure you can guess, even though I felt an energetic hit when I heard those words that told me this was right-on, my answer was, “Who? Me?”

I realized that I was faced with the biggest lesson of all. I had cleaned up my body, healed my heart, trained my intuition and now it was either show up or what’s all the work been for.

My mother had left me as a young woman and in a way, my father, because of his own pain, had too. I suddenly knew that a person could wait forever to be invited to the table. Whether we are waiting for the invitation to come from our parents, families, people with more money, society…it doesn’t matter…the only way to get a real, genuine, solid oak seat at the table is to CLAIM it. But before you can claim it you’ve got to believe it is your birthright to have it; otherwise, it will never feel real and you will spend a lot of time defending, resenting and doubting.

I now teach and coach other solo-entrepreneurs, to claim their seat at the table. You can be as gifted as the cow in the moon. If you don’t KNOW to the CORE of YOUR KNOWING that you truly deserve your seat, and can have ANYTHING YOU WANT while you are at the table, then ironically, you are not offering all that you came here to give. There is a piece of your purpose missing.

So. Now the question is, “Who DO you think you are…to not be living your life fully, completely and thoroughly with all the rewards and success (from spirit to spending) that are meant for you?”

My life continues to be one of healing. I talk to my mother more and more as the trust that she is there for me strengthens. My father and I have come home to a place where the hurt is past and the future has sprung. I relish the time I spend with him and his beautiful wife. My heart continues to expand in all that I learn from being a wife and the biggest classroom of all will open when I start a family. I will enjoy every moment of bringing my child to their seat at the table.

Heather Dominick is the creator of the EnergyRICH Success System for Entrepreneurs ®, the essence of her years of education, intutive studies, marketing training, and sales tools. Heather uses this proven step-by-step system to coach entrepreneurs by creating an energetic map to harness their energy once and for all. Her coaching philosophy is that an individual cannot “do” business, but needs to BE business at a holistic level that integrates thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. She calls this managing your energy. It's important that an entrepreneur do the inner and outer work necessary to activate this skill and belief in them. Only when you have activated this in you, can you fully and confidently present yourself and your business to others. That is what is at the heart of assisting individuals in making any outer changes in their businesses.

Heather's strengths include helping clients to articulate their businesses and life visions, and develop joyful, authentic plans to achieve these goals. Her primary focus is in helping entrepreneurs identify sources for increasing the productivity and profit of their businesses. She is an insightful accountability partner who helps her clients gain clarity quickly, stay focused and motivated while activating in them what's needed to quantum leap their business and life success.

A confident and from-the-heart individual, Heather has more than 12 years of teaching and coaching experience in helping entrepreneurs have a business systematized for more daily. joy-filled productivity and structured to consistently grow their bottom line profits.

Home | Free EnergyRICH Articles | Resources | Teleclasses/Events | Heather's Help | Heather's Story | Testimonials | Need a Speaker | Contact

  © 2005-2008 Individual-Health/EnergyRICH®   Privacy Policy | Terms of Use