Getting More Fit While On Travel Vacation, Taking Time Off & Renewing Your Vows

"Where there is love there is life." — Mahatma Ghandi

Greetings Fit Rich Fam!

I am writing you from San Luis Obisbo as me & the wife are on our 2-year Anniversary vacation trip.

Without further ado, let's proactively build your Fit Rich Life—FRL! Your weekly dose of actionable tips, tools & strategies to alchemize your Fitness, Money & Life to the Next Level.

FITNESS: Use vacation & travel to practice your fit rich lifestyle.

Most people’s fitness gets derailed by vacation & travel. But this doesn’t have to be the case. It starts with belief & mindset. If you believe that when you go on vacation you will make terrible food choices, put on unhealthy weight & destroy your fitness that is what you will do. However, if you believe that you can use travel & vacation as an opportunity to take your fit rich life to the next level that is what you will do. Here are five ways to practice the fit rich lifestyle while on vacay: (1) Practice fasting until lunch or even dinner. (2) Consider staying in an Airbnb or hotel with a kitchen so you can cook “at home” one meal a day & eat out one meal a day. (3) Explore new gyms as if they were an amusement park & count the cost of the guest pass as the ticket price to the adventure. (4) Walk or rent a bike & explore by foot or pedal whenever possible. (5) Optimize your travel vacation activities for fitness with endeavors like hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, surfing, swimming, walking tours, etc. We just went axe-throwing yesterday. Not only was it great exercise, but it will now be a memory that pays happiness dividends for years to come.

MONEY: Take your PTO. Take time off from work. 

I’ve been working in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly a decade & the number of people who work at startups & tech companies that have an unlimited PTO policy is pretty amazing. What is sad is that most people do not utilize this benefit. Instead, they just keep on working throughout the year. The same goes for standard companies that only have 2-4 weeks of paid time off. Most people don’t take it. I’ve noticed a similar thing among my peers who have their own businesses. They rarely, if ever, take time off. There are so many benefits to taking time off from work. You cannot reflect on your job or career if you’re always in the thick of it. You cannot work on your business if you’re stuck in it. You have to step away to get a more macro view. This will empower you to see what’s working, what’s not working, and if you’re even headed in the right direction. This lack of time for reflection is one of the reasons people wake up at age 40 or 50 only to realize they don’t even like their chosen line of work (and that they’ve been wasting their life). Plus, I find that when I take time off I return to work with renewed energy & excitement about how much I enjoy the work I do. Too much of anything (even stuff you enjoy) becomes uninteresting & loses gratification. Not only will stepping away from work empower you to improve your career or business trajectory, but it will also empower you to recharge. Rest is the basis of successful endeavors. You must sharpen your axe & ensure you are chopping on the right tree. All of this will help you improve your work, increase your work/life satisfaction & help you make even more money.

LIFE: Consider renewing your vows.

Last year for our 1-year Anniversary we took a trip to magical Mt. Shasta & renewed our vows under a beautiful waterfall. This year for our second Anniversary we are renewing our vows again while on vacation. This tradition has been incredibly empowering as it gives us time & space to reflect on the last year of marriage. We think about & talk about what has been going well in our marriage, what areas we still need to work on, what we're grateful for & how we can continue to live an empowering life together. We also use it as an opportunity to review our vows and decide if any updates need to be made. For the actual vow renewal ceremony, we keep it simple. We find a place in nature with just the two of us, put one of our iPhones on a tripod, hit video record & then say our vows to one another. Sometimes we share the recording with family & friends. Sometimes it's just a keepsake for us. What's most important is the energetic recommitment to proactively & consciously growing our marriage together as we individually & collectively evolve. People evolve & so should relationships.

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Sending you all lots of Energy & plenty of Dragon Magic!

Your Fitness, Money & Life Coach,

Justin David Carl

P.S. Speaking of marriage I recently got to interview my friend Isaac Gautschi who filmed my wedding. He shares his entrepreneurial journey to becoming an incredibly successful photographer & videographer which actually came about because of a motorcycle accident that forced him to reevaluate his work & life. Tune in for some inspiration for your own entrepreneurial endeavors. The podcast episode is available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube & wherever you enjoy your podcast entertainment.

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 you empower you to achieve your dream body, master your money & live your best life. Yup, it's a proven Fitness, Money & 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.