Fit Rich Life

Newsletter #45

Weekly Tips, Tools & Strategies to Alchemize your Fitness, Money & Life
Newsletter Archive

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Philosopher

Happy New Year’s Eve, Fit Rich Fam!

>>read this on my website to bookmark it for later or to view the archive for older editions<<

In the last two Newsletters, I reflected upon the Year's Highlights (issue 43) and the biggest Happiness-Detractors (issue 44) of 2023 as part of my Annual Review.

In this edition, I will continue my Annual Review and take a slight detour from my typical structure of providing actionable insight on Fitness, Money and Life.

Instead, I will reflect on my Top Personal Lessons from 2023 in this edition.

Here are my Top Personal Lessons of 2023:

(1) Slow Down, fall in love with the journey, you are more than enough, and just keep working at it.
For much of my life, I was always trying to rush to the next thing or get to the next thing.

I told myself that I'd be happy once I got the next thing -- the next level of wealth, the next level of fitness, the next level of whatever.

It was a never-ending hedonic treadmill trap that left me bereft of happiness and satisfaction.

At the root of it all was an underlying subconscious belief that I was not enough and that I would be enough once I got to the next level.

But with the next level, there was always another level to get to.

With every level up I would be happy and satisfied for maybe a few hours or a few days then I was back in my “not-enoughness” and soon telling myself I'd be happy once I got to the next level.

Over the last 2-years, I've been able to make a conscious shift towards slowing down, embracing the journey, falling in love with the process, recognizing that I am more than enough and knowing that things are going to continue to get even better if I just keep working at it.

This mindset shift has brought a much deeper level of overall joy & satisfaction.


(2) Choose wisely who you do business with.
This one is huge. If it weren't for my Business Partner who I started my online coaching business with there is no way I would have done over $100K+ in my first year.

In fact, I even tried to start an online coaching business about 7 years ago and I couldn't get it off the ground or get a single person to sign up.

Then I launched Fit Rich Life Coaching with the help of someone who already had done nearly seven figures in a single year as an online coach and making my own coaching business super successful was pretty darn easy in retrospect.

This was the upside of wisely choosing to work with my Business Partner.

The downside was that we're at two different places in life.

He's 10-years younger than me and still working towards Financial Independence and energetically he wants to grow as fast as possible.

I am already Financially Independent and I want to grow at a slower more personally sustainable pace that empowers me to live my Fit Rich Life.

When you're in business together you cannot help but take on the energy of a business partner so for the first year of my coaching business I was constantly feeling like we weren't growing fast enough which caused me a lot of anxiety.

Ultimately, we decided that it was best if he stepped away and continued to focus on growing his own businesses at the pace that worked best for him and I would grow Fit Rich Life Coaching and my other businesses at the pace that worked best for me.

Mentally, emotionally & energetically this was a total game-changer for me.

The anxiety disappeared and funny enough my coaching business grew at an even faster pace with less effort.

Looking back I would have never done it a different way, but looking forward I will think twice about going into business with someone who is at a different place in life.


(3) Stop trying to do it alone and learn from someone who embodies what you want.
As I mentioned in the previous lesson, there is no way Fit Rich Life Coaching would be as successful as it has been if I didn't start it with my business partner.

Looking back, I did the same thing with my fitness, my money, and my podcast.

I tried to figure out my fitness & money for most of my life on my own and never achieved the results I wanted.

For nearly 10 years I tried to convince myself that I would learn how to edit and publish podcasts and never did.

My fitness, money, podcast & coaching dreams were finally realized when I got the help I needed and it happened so fast by working with coaches and professionals.

I got the body of my dreams in only 6-months after working with an online coach.

I went from -$80,000 in Debt to becoming a Millionaire in just 2-years after working with coaches.

I launched my podcast in 4-months after hiring a coach and a podcast production company.

I launched my coaching program and have been profitable since the very first month by working with my Business Partner who was essentially my Business Coach.

I now hire a coach or professional for anything that I want to achieve knowing that trying to hold myself accountable doesn't work.

It's too easy to make excuses to yourself.

But if you're paying someone to show you how to get there 100 times faster, hold you accountable, and you have skin in the game you will achieve massive success infinitely faster.


(4) Where you live has a massive impact on your overall life happiness & success.
As a kid, I dreamed of living a bigger life and so I worked my ass off to get to Stanford University.

I didn't get in on the first try, but I tried again and got in on the second attempt.

Living on campus at Stanford changed the entire trajectory of my life.

This was one of the best decisions of my life and it continues to pay dividends to this day.

At one point in my life, I dreamed of being a nightclub owner so I moved to Hollywood and got into the nightclub business.

Eventually, I realized the Nightclub thing wasn't what I wanted to do long term so I went back to Stanford to become a part of Stanford Startup because that was one of my childhood dreams.

Going back to Stanford led me to become a founding team member of a Stanford Startup.

After getting married my wife and I dreamed of living by the beach again as we both grew up near the beach.

She grew up in Huntington Beach, California and I grew up near the beach in Washington State.

We ended up moving to Santa Cruz County (5 minutes from the beach) and went from going to the beach about 3-5 times a year to going to the beach 3-5 times a week which was a massive quality of life upgrade which supported our dream of being online coaches living in a place that we absolutely loved.


(5) Lessons will repeat themselves until you transcend them.
I've known this one for a while but it is worth repeating for myself and my readers.

One of my lifelong lessons is Balance.

I tend to keep pushing myself until I break down (in the form of sickness or injury or both).

I am just recovering from being both injured and sick.

I hate to admit this but I've gotten sick more times this year than any prior year because I've been pushing myself so hard mentally, emotionally & physically with the building of my Coaching Business & Podcast.

While the hard work has paid off with the success of the endeavors it's been at the sacrifice of my health.

I've had a habit of utilizing caffeine to override my body's natural signals that it's time to take a break and rest. 

Though I've been sober from drugs and alcohol for over 9 years, I freely admit that I have a caffeine addiction.

My interrelated balance & addiction lessons just keep repeating themselves in different forms throughout my life.

I've come a long way, but I still have work to do.


(6) Other people are just reflecting back to you what you need to heal, learn, and transcend.
In myself and with my coaching clients I see the same thing coming up in relationships to other significant people in our lives.

In the past, I would play the victim and say that the reason I couldn't achieve some goal was because of my partner or because of my parents, but the truth is that we are 100% responsible for everything in our lives.

For example, with my Fitness I would complain that I couldn't be in the shape I wanted to be in because my partner liked to eat out too much or that the reason I couldn't become wealthy was because my parents didn't teach me about money and they always struggled with money. 

In truth, these are just excuses for me not taking 100% responsibility for my situation.

When I finally recognized that my Mom's struggle with her relationship to her body and food was my opportunity to heal this area of my own life everything changed with my fitness.

It wasn't my partner causing the problem and using my parents as an excuse wasn't the real reason either.

It was my problem. Not someone else's.

I went from making excuses to learning and undergoing the necessary healing I needed to do to find success in this area and I got the support I needed via coaching.

I did the same thing with my money.

I recognized my parents' challenges with money were THE OPPORTUNITY to do the work I needed to do to master this area of my life.

So, I got the support I needed, did the work, and completely turned my money situation around.

This is your notice that the people in your life (your partner, your parents, your kids, etc) are NOT the reason you haven't achieved something in your life.

You are the reason and you have to take 100% responsibility.


(7) Mindset is everything.
If there is one thing I'm proud of it's my habit of constantly working on my mindset through a daily never-ending pursuit of self-improvement and personal study.

Mindset is like a muscle and the more you work on it over time the stronger it gets.

It is your mindset that is going to power you to overcome setbacks and failures, harness the learning from them, and eventually achieve success by sticking with it until you break through to the next level.


(8) Build a brand you are proud of.
This past year I was hyper-focused on building the Fit Rich Life brand in a way that I was proud of.

Often this meant not doing things that others in my space were doing because it didn't feel aligned with the brand I wanted to build.

In the short term, this meant slower growth, but in the long run, it has made it so my brand sells itself which I would have never gotten to if I had sacrificed the brand integrity to make those short-term gains.


(9) Follow interests until they turn into superpowers that people will pay you to help them with.
I’ve gone down a lot of rabbit holes.

I tend to get super interested in something and spend hundreds if not thousands of hours learning and implementing what I learn.

I worked on my fitness for 15-20 years because I was naturally interested in it.

I worked on my money since I was a kid because I dreamed of being a millionaire one day.

I proactively worked on Personal Development and building towards my ideal lifestyle for my entire life.

For much of that journey, I had no idea if I would ever be able to monetize it and I wasn't concerned about making money from it.

I wanted to do it because that's where my natural interest was.

Spending time on these areas in my free time brought me joy and satisfaction.

Eventually, I got so good at these things that people started asking me for help in these areas and it was from this that my coaching business was born.


(10) All your detours along the way of your Life Path can be harnessed.
At this stage in my journey it’s been really fun to see how I am leveraging all the skills and connections I built in previous jobs, careers, and rabbit holes I’ve gone down.

There is a saying that there is no such thing as wasted time unless you deem it so.

If you’re in a job or career that isn’t what you really want to do recognize that it is just a stepping stone and that you can seize the opportunity to learn and grow.

With the right approach and mindset, I promise you that one day you will look back and realize how it helped you build connections and skillsets that end up powering your success in life.


(11) Financial Independence is a superpower.
Pursuing and achieving Financial Independence is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

It gave me the ability to take risks and play life full out because no matter what I'd be okay.

Here's a bullet list of some of the many benefits I've enjoyed since becoming Financially Independent about 4 years ago:

• Work a 9-5 on your own terms (it’s just gravy money).

• No fear of losing your 9-5.

• Leave your 9-5 whenever you want.

• Grow a side hustle slowly w/o stress.

• Only do work that you actually find interesting & fun.

• Work a 4-day workweek.

• Take a lot of vacation.

• Sleep soundly.

• Spend as much time on your fitness as you want.

• Spend a lot of time w/ family & friends.

The list goes on, but at the heart of it is the incredible power of Freedom to live life on your own terms.

In 2022, Financial Independence gave me the confidence and courage to go after my other dreams as I didn’t need them to be financially successful.

This included launching my Podcast and Online Coaching Business simultaneously.

I could pursue them out of pure interest and joy.

I believe these endeavors became even more successful because I wasn’t stressed about making them successful.


(12) Build digital leverage.
The internet is one of the most amazing inventions of our lifetime.

With the advent of online content creation through websites (personal & professional) along with social media and group conferencing services like Zoom one can create a massive amount of what I like to think of as Digital Leverage.

Digital leverage means accomplishing more with less effort, less time & less resources.

I've been proactively building my online presence for over a decade at this point and I'm just starting to monetize it through my Coaching & Podcast.

I built the well before I was thirsty.

This digital leverage empowered me to do well over $100K in my first year of online coaching.

If you ever want to have your own successful business start building your digital leverage now.

Even if you don't plan on monetizing it for a long time.

You'll thank me later.


(13) Find and BE an empowering Life Partner.
One who makes the other a better person.

One who believes in and supports the dreams of the other.

Before I got with my Life Partner I was "kinda fit, kind fat," was $80K in debt, and spiritually/emotionally bankrupt.

I didn’t truly become financially, physically, emotionally & spiritually successful until my spouse came into my life.

Now I’m a multimillionaire doing work I love and have been jacked year-round for the last 9-years we’ve been together. 

Pretty amazing how the right partner can change everything.

This year marks a full decade that I've been with the Phoenix and I'm deeply grateful for the huge positive impact she's had on my life.

I believe I've done a great job of supporting my wife in return.

If you're still single I hope that you will soon find a partner who unlocks your expression in this world.

If you're in a relationship, I challenge you to lead by example and take 100% responsibility to BE the partner who makes the love of your life truly shine (and I hope they do it for you in return).


(14) Entrepreneurship and growing a business is one of the most powerful forms of personal development.

When you launch and grow your own business all your fears, insecurities, and areas that need to evolve come up.

As you work through these you can reach new levels of success in your business.

Simultaneously as you reach new levels of business they empower you to learn, heal, grow & transform.

I've read a lot of self-improvement books, done a lot of personal development workshops, and worked with a lot of coaches and I'd say that growing my own business has forced me to grow the fastest out of all of them.

So if you want to develop yourself in the most rapid way possible, start and grow a business.

I highly recommend having support in the form of a coach or business partner so you don't blow up your life in the process as I've seen many other entrepreneurs do.


Closing Words:
My deepest gratitude for all of your support over the last year.

Every email reply, comment left, share, and like truly means a lot to me.

I get seriously stoked when I hear from you about how you implemented one of the tips, tools, or strategies I've shared in my Newsletter, Podcast, and Social Media Posts.

I consider it a deep honor to be a guide on your journey of Fitness, Money, and Life.

As I always say, humans are designed to do the work of learning, healing, growing, transforming & transcending together.

Plus, we go so much faster and have so much more fun together!

Looking forward to having our best year yet in 2024!

 

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I am sending you all lots of Energy & plenty of Dragon Magic!

Your Fitness, Money & Life Coach,

Justin David Carl
 

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. I run a custom-tailored 1-1 & group mastermind coaching program that will empower you to achieve your dream body, master your money & live your best life. Yup, it's a proven Fitness, Money and Life Coaching Program unlike anything else out there. You can book a free consultation with me here or just drop me a note on Instagram to find a time to connect.

2. If you work in an office introduce me to whoever handles your office snacks, catering & employee experience to take your work wellbeing to the next level. I'm a founding member of Garten, a tech-empowered employee experience & wellbeing platform that top companies utilize to power their most important asset (their people). Email me at >>justin@garten.co<< to set up a meeting.