In Omo’s own words…
While I have over 20 years experience as a working professional myself, five years ago a medically challenging period, illness and surgery left me on bedrest for two months straight. It wasn’t luxurious. It was excruciating. Laying in bed unable to move, I had to examine my life, my childhood, and my mother’s death at the age of 19. Not just what happened to me, but really understanding who I was. I had never before been forced to think, “Who is Omo?”
I fell into a dark dark well and I spent two months crawling back up.
Up to that point, the greener grass on the “other side” had consumed my attention. There were so many boxes I hadn’t ticked off the success list of life. Because of my illness, there were many boxes that could now never be checked.
I started to list all the opportunities I had missed – studying in the United States, writing a book, and the chance to participate in humanitarian work in Afghanistan.
I don’t have that. I don’t have this. I started losing confidence in myself and what I brought to the table. …and couldn’t see the impact I was having.
I was right at the bottom of its well. Change had to happen. It was only when I admitted this to myself that my breakthrough started.
I tackled these POWER questions: If this were the last moment of my life, what could I say, I had done to try to change things in my life? What contribution have I made to the world? What do I want my legacy to be?
My discovery during this journey of change was that, underneath the happy and bold face I showed the world, was pain, shock, anger, and deep regret over how much time I had wasted and lost. I had dwelled way too long in the “if only…, what if…, I should have…” zone.
I realized that courage starts when I create my own success criteria, and it multiplies when I live by it.
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