FRLN103: The Body Keeps The Score, Maximizing Your Salary, Love Without Carrying
All growth leaves a trail.
Your body keeps it.
Your calendar reflects it.
Your nervous system remembers it.
This week’s newsletter is about listening earlier, planning smarter, and loving better.
So you don’t have to learn the hard way over and over again.
Let’s get into it.
FIT — The Body Keeps the Score
Your body is always reflecting back to you how you’re treating it.
Not just physically — but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
If you’re:
Overtraining
Over-consuming (food, alcohol, substances, supplements)
Ignoring rest
Avoiding inner work
Your body will let you know.
Sometimes gently.
Sometimes loudly.
Sometimes by forcing you to stop.
Fatigue. Illness. Low energy. Tightness.
Weird symptoms that “don’t quite make sense” or won't seem to go away.
Here’s the deeper layer most people miss:
If you don’t do the emotional or spiritual work you’re meant to do, your body will eventually create the conditions that force you to.
I’ve been living this lesson recently.
Overdoing training.
Overdoing supplements.
Overdoing movement.
While simultaneously avoiding some inner healing work I knew I needed to face.
My body didn’t punish me. It communicated.
And once I slowed down enough to listen, the message became clear.
If your body isn’t happy, that’s not a failure.
It’s an invitation.
An invitation to:
Clean up your inputs
Adjust your training
Rest more
And do the inner work you’ve been postponing.
The body keeps the score.
If you’re quiet long enough, it will tell you exactly what it needs.
RICH — How to Turn 12 PTO Days Into 42 Days Off in 2026 (U.S.)
I’m a huge believer in maximizing your salary.
And your Paid Time Off is part of your compensation.
If you don’t use it strategically, you’re leaving money — and life — on the table.
With a standard Mon–Fri job, weekends off, and U.S. federal holidays, here’s how to turn 12 PTO days into 42 days off in 2026:
JAN (New Year’s + MLK)
Jan 1–4 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Jan 2 | New Year’s Day Jan 1Jan 16–19 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Jan 16 | MLK Day Jan 19
FEB (Presidents’ Day)
Feb 13–16 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Feb 13 | Presidents’ Day Feb 16
MAY (Memorial Day)
May 22–25 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: May 22| Memorial Day May 25
JUN (Juneteenth)
Jun 19–22 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Jun 22 | Juneteenth Jun 19
JUL (Independence Day)
Jul 2–6 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Jul 2 | July 3 observed
SEP (Labor Day)
Sep 4–7 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Sep 4 | Labor Day Sep 7
OCT (Indigenous Peoples’ / Columbus Day)
Oct 9–12 → 4 days off
Use 1 PTO: Oct 9 | Oct 12 holiday
NOV (Veterans Day)
Nov 11–15 → 5 days off
Use 2 PTO: Nov 12–13 | Veterans Day Nov 11
DEC (Christmas)
Dec 24–28 → 5 days off
Use 2 PTO: Dec 24 + Dec 28 | Christmas Day Dec 25
TOTAL: 12 PTO → 42 days off
This is your reminder to start planning now.
Talk to your boss.
Block the calendar.
Protect your life.
Work is just one part of your identity.
Use your PTO to invest in the other parts.
Use the schedule above to create numerous long weekends or plan an even longer vacation while minimizing the amount of PTO you use so that you can have more vacations throughout the year.
LIFE — Loving Without Carrying
One of the biggest lessons I’m learning right now is how to love and support without carrying.
This is especially hard if you’re:
A parent
A partner
A son or daughter
A brother or sister
An empath like me
When you love someone, and they are struggling, the instinct is to:
Save them
Fix their problems
Take on their stress
Take on their energy
Carry their emotional weight
But here’s the truth most of us learn too late:
When you carry someone else’s emotional or energetic load, you burn yourself out and rob them of their journey.
It wrecks your life.
And it doesn’t actually help them.
The practice is learning how to:
Love deeply
Support & help
Show up compassionately
Without absorbing their pain as your responsibility.
That requires:
Boundaries
Energy hygiene
Releasing what isn’t yours (sometimes daily)
And like fitness, this isn’t a one-time fix.
You don’t:
Eat one healthy meal, do one workout, and stay fit forever
Set boundaries once and never revisit them
Release what isn't yours only once
This is a practice.
My old strategy was emotional avoidance.
While that protected me, it made me a worse partner, son, brother, and human.
And led to increasing amounts of guilt.
If you want a full life — and healthy relationships — you have to learn how to love without carrying.
I’m still learning.
But with intention, reflection, and repetition, it gets easier.
ACTION — Integrate, Don’t Overhaul
Pick one and practice it this week:
FIT — Ask your body one honest question each day: What do you need right now? Then listen without negotiating. Less intensity, fewer inputs, more presence. Your recovery is the work.
RICH — Open your 2026 calendar and map one long weekend or vacation today. Treat PTO like compensation you’re owed (because it is). Time off planned early gets protected. Time off “someday” disappears.
LIFE — Identify one relationship where you’re carrying more than you should. Practice loving, supporting, and staying connected without absorbing their emotional weight & keeping healthy boundaries. Notice what shifts in your energy.
Your Fit Rich Life isn’t built by pushing harder.
It’s built by listening sooner.
Planning smarter.
And loving without self-abandonment.
Small, aligned decisions (made consistently) compound into a life that feels rich AF.
To your health, wealth, and happiness,
— Justin David Carl
P.S. I was just featured on the biggest podcast I’ve ever been on — The Personal Finance Podcast, which gets 600,000+ downloads per month.
I share my full journey:
Fitness
Money
Mindset
The mistakes and the breakthroughs
If you’re newer to my work, this is one of the best single episodes to understand how I think — and how I live.
I’m genuinely proud of it.
Give it a listen.