Like many over the holidays, I reviewed last year’s challenges and successes and set fresh goals for the New Year.
This year, after watching the Broadway musical “Get On Your Feet” and reading Emilio Estefan’s book “The Rhythm of Success, How an Immigrant Produced His Own American Dream,” I went a little further and looked back at some of the boldest and challenging times of my life.
This exercise reinforced the importance of living each day and each year intentionally, and taking action to accomplish the things we want in our career, health and fitness, family and friends, travel, giving back and others.
Estefan’s book also helped me redefine my goals and priorities for 2016. I have come up with a list of five tips I hope help you get what you want out of 2016.
Define your own success
Success is different for everyone and is different at various stages of our lives.
For some, success could be making it home every day in time to have dinner with family or making enough money to send their kids to a preferred school.
For others, it may be having the freedom to control their time, schedule and work.
For me, success has evolved through the years.
Some of my successes have been:
• Starting a new life in Canada (1983)
• Learning to speak French so I could finish high school and be admitted to college in Canada (1985)
• Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from McGill (1989)
• Marrying my college sweetheart (1989)
• Graduating at the top of my law school class (2001)
• Developing and transitioning to my full-time immigration practice at Marks Gray (2006)
• Becoming the JBA president and having the opportunity to continue to strengthen our organization with fresh ideas and events (2015)
What do you need to achieve or do to consider yourself successful?
What important long-term goals are you putting off because you are focusing on the next deadline? What is your boldest achievement?
Be open to change
We all fear the unknown, rejection, failure and even success. But when we overcome fear and embrace change, amazing things can happen.
Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur and personal development expert, said “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”
Some of the biggest changes in my life — leaving my homeland, starting a new life in two different countries, becoming a physical therapist, earning a law degree, developing the immigration practice at Marks Gray and learning how to swim, bike and run to complete my first Ironman — have provided me with the greatest sense of achievement and opportunities.
I know if I had stayed in Cuba my life would not have been nearly as fulfilled or thrilling.
My parents and I arrived in Canada in the summer of 1983 with nothing but passion, optimism and drive to live a better life.
Despite our enthusiasm, the road was not easy. We had to overcome rejection from those who saw us as different because we did not speak their language or did not look like them.
We had to assimilate into new societies and communities, adapt to challenging winters and work literally day and night to achieve financial stability.
However, we knew that despite our fears and the challenges, action was needed to move forward.
What fear is holding you back? What can you overcome to make your 2016 goals come true?
Find your own advantage
In today’s competitive market, knowing your trade better than anyone else is not enough.
You must combine knowledge with action that stresses your unique traits — your competitive advantage.
This could be your cultural background, family, school, work experience, interests, hobbies, special abilities and languages, among others.
I developed my immigration practice, because I wanted to leverage my personal experience in immigration, language skills, cultural diversity, passion and physical and mental endurance to help my clients navigate through the complex, technical and discretionary immigration process, and to develop long-range solutions to meet their immigration needs.
I will always remember the anxiety and challenges of my immigration process — deciding the best status to immigrate to the U.S., traveling to the border to renew my status and preparing and undergoing the naturalization interview.
I am grateful to my parents, my aunt and my uncle in Miami, my grandparents, my experienced immigration attorneys, my Marks Gray family and many others who have guided and supported me through the many challenges and successes in my life.
Consider your unique skills. Are you using them to your advantage to help you enjoy your career and life?
Continue to grow your skills, knowledge and talents
Expanding our minds by learning and applying what we learn every day is more critical than ever. Our level of knowledge and skills must continue to improve and grow for us to move forward.
My grandmother, Mella, never had the opportunity to obtain a college education but she made sure her daughters and grandchildren did.
When my parents and I arrived in Canada, my parents spoke some English, my mother had a bachelor’s degree in economics and also spoke some French and I spoke neither.
We were working to support ourselves. However, we also knew we needed to make time to go to school and learn French and English, because if we did, we would be able to find better jobs and be more financially stable.
So, we did both — my parents and I enrolled in school, attended language classes and worked. And the learning never stopped.
How long has it been that you learned a new skill?
The JBA offers affordable, practical and local learning opportunities. Have you attended a JBA CLE lately? If not, I encourage you to sign up for one soon.
Stay healthy and fit
I cannot write about the rhythm of success without including health.
When we are healthy, in body and mind, we are better able to accomplish our goals and help others.
You do not have to run a marathon or do an Ironman but for me these are huge incentives to stay fit, engaged, connected to my health and learn from amazing people.
My journey to running my first marathon started in 2008 when a running friend challenged me to train and qualify for the legendary Boston Marathon and I took the challenge.
In 2009, I earned my qualifying time at the Jacksonville Marathon. However, for the first time in its history, in 2010, the registration for the Boston Marathon closed in eight hours.
I had been working all day and did not think to register until I got home in the evening because in the past the registration had been opened for several months. I was crushed.
Then, I started to look for the positive in this and decided I would use my improved level of fitness to train for an Ironman — something I also wanted to do but feared I could not do.
In 2011, I completed my first full Ironman and a few more since.
Explore and find out what health and fitness routines work for you to motivate you and keep you in optimal shape.
Research supports again and again that when we fail to look after our health, we have to spend time and money to fix all the ailments that cropped up from neglecting it.
Don’t let that happen to you.
The JBA Health and Wellness committee has started a Walk & Talk every other Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
I encourage you to take this unique opportunity to stay healthy, network and make new friends — how much better can it get? I hope to see you there.