FRLN104: 2025 Fitness, Money & Life Year-End Review

This is the last Fit Rich Life newsletter of 2025.

The next one lands January 3.

So instead of tips or tactics, I want to do something simpler — and, I think, more useful.

I want to reflect on what this year actually gave me.

Not the highlight-reel version.

The honest version.

Let's dig in:

FIT — What My Body Taught Me in 2025

Many of the best moments of my year were deeply physical.

A road trip through Colorado and Utah for Carly’s birthday and our anniversary, where I fell back in love with trail running.

Discovering pickleball — and reawakening the part of me that loves competing in sports.

Joining the new Santa Cruz Athletic Club gym and making a ton of new fit AF friends.

Pre-parties at the Kava Bar with friends, then dancing under the stars at Afrobeats.

Rollerblading at Stanford University with the Endless Blading Crew.

Fist-pumping with my younger brother at Outside Lands Music Festival.

My body felt alive this year.

But it also gave me a very clear boundary.

I got sick — and stayed sick — for almost a month.

In hindsight, the lesson was obvious:

I kept pushing physically (using stimulants & playing pickleball) when my body was asking for rest.

Not because I didn’t know better.

But because slowing down is still something I resist.

Here’s the deeper lesson 2025 taught me about fitness:

Your body battery isn’t just fueling workouts.

It fuels everything.

Your work.
Your creativity.
Your emotional availability.
Your ability to show up for family.
Your capacity to support people you love.

And when one area of life is drawing heavily from that battery — work stress, family challenges, emotional labor — you don’t get to pretend your workouts live in a vacuum.

I was training hard while other parts of my life were quietly taxing the same system.

My body eventually called the bluff.

2025 reminded me that fitness isn’t about doing more.

It’s about accounting honestly for where your energy is already being spent.

Listening sooner — not pushing longer — is the real skill.

RICH — From Net Worth to Net-Life

This year brought meaningful professional momentum.

• Witnessing major transformations with coaching clients

• Building & releasing my first online course (Investing Mastery)

• Going to FinCon for the very first time

• Sharing my story on podcasts I deeply admire

• Getting back into podcasting for my own show

• Growing this newsletter (and becoming a better writer)

• Working closely with a new business partner

• Finding new mentors — and deepening relationships with long-time ones

That last part was a game-changer.

Having people ahead of you who’ve already lived the season you’re in changes how you think, decide, and move. It collapses time. It brings perspective. It keeps you from solving problems alone that others have already solved.

I’m deeply grateful for both new mentors who entered my life in 2025 and the long-time mentors who’ve continued to guide me over the years.

None of this changed my net worth overnight.

But it changed my orientation.

One of the biggest money lessons of 2025 was realizing this:

You have to understand what season of money you’re in.

There’s a season for building. For grinding. For growing your net worth aggressively.

And that season matters.

But there’s also a season for harvesting.

A season where the question shifts from “How do I grow the number?”
​
To “How do I use what I’ve built to actually live my life well?”

2025 marked a clear transition for me.

Chasing a higher net worth at the cost of my quality of life stopped making sense.

Doing work that wasn’t filled with purpose, meaning, or joy stopped making sense.

That doesn’t mean becoming careless with money.
It means becoming more intentional with it.

Instead of optimizing purely for net worth growth, I began prioritizing what I call net-life:

More play.
More presence.
More relationships.
More meaning per day.

Money isn’t the scoreboard.

It’s the tool.

And the real goal isn’t having more and more money — it’s building a life that makes you feel ALIVE while you’re living it.

LIFE — People, Boundaries, and the Work in Between

The deepest lessons of 2025 weren’t public.

They were relational.

People are the greatest source of joy in our lives.

They’re also, if we’re honest, the greatest source of pain.

This year sharpened that truth for me.

I saw how deeply nourishing friendship, mentorship, and community can be.

New friendships.
Shared movement.
Being seen and supported.

At the same time, I became more aware of how much energy certain relationships — especially family dynamics — can quietly consume if boundaries aren’t clear.

I noticed a pattern I’ve run for a long time:

When emotional weight shows up, I either carry too much of it…

Or I avoid it entirely.

Neither one works.

Avoidance doesn’t protect my energy.
Over-carrying doesn’t make me more loving.

Both pull me out of my own life.

2025 asked me to practice something harder and more mature:

How to build deep relationships and community while also maintaining healthy boundaries.

How to love and support family without absorbing emotional or energetic weight that isn’t mine.

That’s not a switch you flip.

It’s a practice.

One I’m still learning.

One thing I’m holding with more compassion as I close the year:

My parents have always supported my dreams (no matter how crazy they were).

Even while carrying their own unresolved patterns.

Both things can be true.

And holding both with honesty feels like growth.

Before We Turn the Page

As we close out the year, this is a beautiful time to pause.

Not to plan.
Not to optimize.
Just to examine.

One simple year-end review I find helpful is this:

What went well?​
What brought real joy, energy, or aliveness this year?
What do you want more of in 2026?

And equally important:

What were the major challenges?​
Where did things feel heavy, draining, or misaligned?
What did those moments teach you that can help make next year better?

No judgment.
No shame.
Just honesty.

A life well-lived is a life well-examined.

If you take the time to reflect now — gently, honestly — you give yourself a powerful gift:

Clarity without pressure.

And a roadmap to make 2026 your best year yet.

Thank you for being here.
Thank you for reading this year.
Thank you for walking this path with me.

To your health, wealth, and happiness,

— Justin David Carl

P.S. If you want more Fit Rich Life material to make 2026 your best year yet, check out the Newsletter Archive and past Podcast Episodes.