"Meddling," my husband said after consulting dictionary.com to try to settle an argument, "is a bad thing."

I put my headphones back on, not acknowledging what he considered a win. Sure, a meddler isn't invited to address an issue, but that doesn't mean she can't help make it better with her unique skills. After meeting Maaria Mozaffar - civil rights attorney, policy drafter and author of More Than Pretty - who describes herself as a "meddler," I can't help but see the descriptor as good.

"I think everybody has the ability to have empathy and step in others' shoes, but not everybody pays attention to it," Mozaffar told me on this week’s episode of #WeGotGoals. "I paid attention to it since childhood ... that it made me very satisfied."

And as we conversed our way through her accomplishments for the podcast, Mozaffar shared how her natural draw towards helping others shaped her life.

Mozaffar saw a future in which she would use her powers of meddling as an attorney, to ensure justice for those who couldn’t always stand up for themselves. First, though, there was the little matter of passing the bar exam. She tried—and failed, five times. Rather than doubt her intelligence and abilities, though, she put the situation in perpective.

"Real life and application of the law and advocacy for the law is not a multiple choice test - such as life is not a multiple choice test," she said. Resilience is a natural result of failure in the face of a big goal and when she took the test a sixth time, she succeeded at her mission to take home the license she needed to practice.

After passing the bar exam, she continued her work in policy and advocacy, inserting herself into the issues where she could impact the most people: rights at the borders, the travel ban and food deserts. Along the way, she also took notice of how women viewed themselves and their success, developing the ideas that would lead to her book More Than Pretty.

In the book, she explores issues relating to beauty, intelligence, social media (and selfies) and how strong women navigate a world where their worth may seem determined more by how they look than what they contribute.

"If I want [my three kids] to have a good example of what a strong woman is, a strong mom is, I can't just tell them about it - I have to be that," she said.

And a natural way to show your children exactly how strong you are is to add "triathlete" to a list that already includes "she who stands up for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

Mozaffar describes the sport of triathlon as a way to keep her body strong and feeling good to allow her to "contribute to society."

"Triathlons are uniquely interesting because triathlons are like life, right? It doesn't matter if you're first. It doesn't matter if you're last. The only thing that matters is that you cross the finish line smiling," she said.

Listen to the episode of #WeGotGoals and get the book by Mozaffar (which she used as a tool to raise money for an organization she loves, The United State of Women, for the first month it was on sale). And if you like what you hear, be sure to rate it and leave a review.

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JAC:Welcome to #WeGotGoals, a podcast by aSweatLife.com on which we talk to high achievers about their goals. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen; with me I have Maggie Umberger and Kristen Geil.

KG:Hello Jeana.

MU: Good morning Jeana.

JAC: Good morning ladies.

MU: So Jeana this week you spoke with Maaroa.

JAC: I did. I spoke with Maria Mozaffar. She is a civil rights attorney. She is an author and speaker and just generally a protector of humans who need protection.

MU: And the way that she sets goals is really cool because she has her eyes and ears open to what people need. And when you say she's a protector of humans that like encompasses her many jobs because she goes into so many different realms that take her on a lot of different paths but they're all under that umbrella of like total selfless acts.

JAC:When she was describing her law practice she talked first about where she volunteers her time, which I find really interesting because the places where she volunteers her time or donates her time--those things tend to take up more of her time than sort of the billable hours stuff. So she she's been active in sort of the Border Rights and the rights that humans have at the U.S. borders as well as the ban, the travel ban. And she also wrote a book called More Than Pretty.

KG: One of the things that came through on your interview with Maaria is that she has no quit in her. Can you tell us about some of the obstacles that she's faced and how she's overcome them?

JAC:So Maaria, you're right does not know how to quit. She failed the bar exam five separate times and she'll talk through the story of how she overcame it what she did to overcome it. But she knew that she needed to pass the bar to practice law, to do the things that she wanted to do and because that was a block in the way of her big goal. She understood that she would just have to keep banging her head against that wall until she broke the wall down. And she wrote letters. She reached out to people. But I think what was most incredible was that I didn't even have a chance to ask her how it felt to pass the bar exam because she immediately explained how it felt, which was that she was on this high probably so high that it was almost as if she was stoking her own ego. But she has this incredible connection to sort of religion and the universe and she felt that the universe almost put her back in her place after feeling like she'd passed the bar and she was on this high. And she found herself sort of back down where she needed to be where her head had to be to actually move forward and achieve the things that she was there to achieve. The bar exam was just one step along the way.

MU:And when we think about fitness I think a lot of times we get to treat fitness as our little selfish moment of the day where it’s just, we do this for us and I know that's how I feel about a great yoga class or whatever it might be. But even when she talks about her relationship to fitness she's a role model to other people. Can you talk a little bit about that?

JAC:So she is a triathlete which is incredible because I don't know when she does it. A multi-sport athlete takes a lot of time for him or herself to train for the three sports, involved for swimming biking and running. And she's doing those things and she's also sort of doing them for her family. So she talks about how she crossed the finish line carrying her daughter in her arms wearing a T-shirt that said she was her husband's wife and her daughter’s mother. She's not just doing it for herself she's doing it to be a role model for her whole family which was incredible and a lesson to me as well because I as I sort of think about where my life will go selfishly I think about how children will fit in because I think so much about how you can be either a strong woman or a caretaker. And that's just not true. Because she is both of those things she is both a strong woman and a caretaker sort of in one body doing all those things, vacillating wildly between being strong so she can take care of people and taking care of people so that she can be strong. And I thought that was the most incredible thing about her was that she sort of broke all the rules.

MU:It's a truly amazing interview. So here is Jeana with Maaria.

JAC:Are you going to cry? I might cry too.

JAC:I’m Jeana Anderson Cohen and we are here on #WeGotGoals. I'm here with Maaria Mozaffar who is an accomplished lawyer, author, president of an organization and you're also an attorney with CAIR here in Chicago. Welcome to #WeGotGoals, Maaria.

MM: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. S

JAC: So before we get started I’d love just sort of hear what you're doing now what you're working on all the organizations you're a part of. Before we jump into the questions.

MM:Sure. So right now I'm donating my time as a legislative attorney to CAIR, Council of American Islamic Relations Chicago. They are the number one civil rights organizations for Muslim Americans in this country. And I'm also donating my time to organizations, political organizations as well that are wanting to learn about legislative drafting and how to get involved in policy and advocate for policy. And I'm also talking about the main ideas about a book I wrote called More Than Pretty,  how to lead a life of substance in an artificial world. So I'm talking to women's groups and different organizations about the substance in that.

JAC: That's a lot. You’re also a mother of three.

MM:Yes I'm a mother of three. I have a 8-year old and two little four year olds and I'm a wife. So,yes. Keeps me busy, busy person.

JAC: So talk to me about a big goal that you've accomplished and what it took to get there.

MM:So I'm very excited I finally finally finished my new labor of love, which is the book More Than Pretty: How to Live a Life of Substance in an Artificial World.And I really wanted to write this book because I wanted to bring everything together that I've experienced since I was a child all the way to now of how I as a person have managed to move away from the distractions that society throws at us and focus on what's important. And it's brought me so much joy and so much purpose. And I just felt you know my day job as a civil rights attorney and as a legislative consultant, my day job shows me a lot of injustices and inconsistencies in our communities. And when I see that I try to solve those problems. But I also focus on the person and I focus on, if each individual in that situation was whole and empowered. Things would look so different they would advocate for themselves differently and the person that may be doing something that's unjust to somebody else would check themselves. So I just felt like at the end of the day no matter what movement we're in, no matter what we're advocating for movements can go so off track. If individuals themselves are not whole and that's what I wanted it to focus on.

JAC:Wow. So in that whole story that you just told the story of your life essentially. You've really been an advocate for others. What led to you doing that? What led to you sort of donating your time the way you do donating your brain power the way you do? Writing a book is not just you sit down and you write a book It takes a long time what led to all of that?

MM:You know I'd like to start out by saying that there are some things in certain people's personalities that are always there like compassion and empathy. I think everybody has. I think everybody has the ability to have empathy and to step in other people's shoes. I think not all of us pay attention to it. I paid attention to it. I paid attention to it since childhood that it made me very happy, that it made me feel very satisfied when I understood how other people felt and how I could somehow communicate with them of how they could snap out of it or change a few things in their in their daily routine or their life or whatever their circumstances. To have a better day or a better opportunity. You know since I was young I was that kid who would intervene if two kids were fighting or if I felt somebody was being mistreated I would make a point or my responsibility to go in. My sister jokes, why are you always meddling? Why are you always meddling in my stuff? And I'm a meddler. I don't say I know it all but I wanted to roll up my sleeves and try to make it go better for you. If everyone did that we would be in a better place so now and this is a really interesting exercise for anyone who's interested in writing. When you actually write your thoughts down and then you go through the summary of your experiences you actually realize more who you are than when you are going through them. So it's a really good exercise to like think about how you reacted and how you interacted with people. And so I started to really do all my work out of that space. You know how can I make somebody else's situation better? And I am a very spiritual person, I'm a person of strong faith and I do believe in the big picture and I do believe that what you put in without always thinking of yourself first, what you put in is going to be rewarded by the universe and by the Creator so I always work out of that space. You know I never think my job is to advocate to always put other people first, I feel like my job is to do the best I can to make life better for somebody else.

JAC:And right now you're working really hard to make life better for women. Among other groups with More Than Pretty. So can you talk to me about how you're sort of working with groups now to implement the ideas in More Than Pretty.

MM:Absolutely. So now I am so thankful I'm going to different town halls going to different communities, will be holding book clubs online to talk about the book and really the book is written for any woman from anywhere honestly at any age. And it is really to focus in and have that conversation that you would with your best friend. You know that you feel everything is going great but somehow you feel like they could do even better if they just heard somebody that was sincere enough to say you know maybe you can tweak here and there. And I've been through these situations you would feel more empowered. So right now that's I'm in the thick of that I'm in the thick of getting my message out. I'm in the thick of empowering women to understand that they are so more than pretty and that the consumer driven industries and the media and the way that this whole community in society is set up is to remind you that you're not. That's how that's how people make money. You know and so many products and industries have made money to tell people that they're not more than pretty. You know tell women that that's all they have to be and that's taken away from them developing their inner character and their inner strength and finding out who they are.

JAC: Today. People are posting about their lives all the time. We're surrounded by images of self,  selfies of people in the perfect situation of portraying what they want to show that pretty perfect lifestyle. How do you think social media has played in to what you're talking about and the problem you're trying to solve.

MM:  I'm so glad you asked me that question because there's a whole chapter on that and there's definitely a chapter on selfies. So we cannot ignore social media and we need to understand it react to it and comment on it. Social media is great in the aspect that it gives you the connection to individuals that you don't see physically and you can talk to people from around the world and learn about issues, humanitarian issues the things that are going on in Burma or Syria. You can learn about and read about it and see short video so I love social media for that reason. There's also a dark side of social media and with everything whether it be chocolate  or junk food of any sort. Moderation is key. Right. So social media is the same. Moderation is key. And I think that we have to understand what social media does to us personally. We have to analyze that. So we know how to use it effectively. So you brought up the example of the selfie. First of all what the selfie teaches you is that it's all about the face. It's all about the face. If the face looks good your life is good. The problem with that is there's not one face that is the standard of beautiful and looking good. There's a lot of different types of faces there's a lot of different types of skin types and the filter shows you that you don't have to worry about being different. We can all look the same. And so there's so much emphasis on the face and that you carry with you psychologically. You know when you enter in a room and you know that a selfie really matters, it really matters what you look like instead of developing your thoughts of what you're going to say at the meeting that you're going to.So it does put a lot of emphasis on your face and you'll and you'll see that this happens. I was just joking about this the other day that you see someone they look like they're on the red carpet. And then you see the same person in the grocery store and you like what happened?And they look fine, they totally look fine they're just getting tomatoes from the grocery store but they look totally different from what they look like. Justa day ago.

And so that artificial look that you're putting to the world all the time consistently basically tells you that your tomato look where you're going out to get groceries is not your real look. But which is it? Because the selfie has a filter right. So you yourself are confused what do I really look like? What is my appearance to the world? The second issue with social media is the like contest. I call it the like contest which is the need for validation for your experiences and your accomplishments and just your moments. If you're on vacation in Greece it's not valuable to you. You may intellectually think it is but it's not valuable to you until you have so many likes on your picture. And so what it does that it takes away from the actual vacation it takes away from the actual moment because you're so concerned about lets take a picture let's take a selfie.

And so it drives that need for validation to your basic existence. And then think the fact that you're breathing and experiencing these things is not valuable enough unless it's on photo. The other thing it does number three is that it takes away from you being present.

It really does because I think we've all been there where we're at social events and we're enjoying the social event we're enjoying the moment whether it be a baby shower bridal shower or what have you. But then everyone is taking a picture and everyone's posing and then it's all about the picture and it's all about that experience instead of the experience of the events.

So it takes away from you being present, it forces you to have this need for validation from others and then it puts a lot of effort on your face which you know God made all types of faces they're all beautiful. God has not made one ugly unattractive person not one. And so the fact that you have a filter fixing your face all the time teaches you that there is an imperfect face and I don't believe in that.

JAC:I think it's super powerful in that and I think what will probably unpack next is the fact that intelligence can't be shown on most of the time let's say on Instagram and these photo based and video based social channels. So how do you sort of take the emphasis from what's in front of your brain into what's actually going on in your head?

MM:I think this goes back to the idea of moderation and knowing how to use it. So first of all you have to know what is the purpose of you being on social media if your purpose is to be more vain to become more insecure to create an artificial moment for other people to see. So then they get envious and start analyzing their own lives. If that is your intention then you don't have to look smart. You just have to look exactly what you're looking like in that picture. But if you want to use it in a way where it actually makes change or does something that's meaningful to somebody else and for yourself then your pictures should have some kind of purpose. It may be a reflection on a moment. It could be a thought that you had. It could be a picture of somebody other than yourself something that you're seeing. Sometimes for example I see individuals that are doing something interesting on the street and I like to comment on it like how nice this person walked this old lady across the street something like that. And then you use that photo to teach or share or use the photo to share your intellectual thought process on a certain moment. And I think that's what we have to do we have to be more than a picture. You know I'm not a big person on Instagram. My friends love it and they're pushing me to get on it. But my hesitation only with that is that the photos don't really let me share my thoughts. It's all about just what you see what you see what you see and what you see. Always should have some context so people are able to appreciate what you're experiencing at a deeper level.

JAC: What's interesting is with us at aSweaLife is. We use Instagram. But I had the same sort of internal struggle because for a while it was just me but now we have all of these writers, all these ambassadors and I love our Instagram channel now because it's not just me. Because it's all of these different faces and humans doing incredible things. But when it was just me I'd post a photo and sort of turned my phone over and be like, why. Why would anyone care about me in a sports bra. Or why would anyone care about me doing a lunge. But now it's it's much more powerful because it's other.s

MM: Because you you figured out how to make it work for your ultimate purpose which is bigger than anything superficial. That's why it works for you.

JAC: Yes. I think that's what everyone needs their own social channels is just ask, in life in fitness and Instagram. What is your why?

MM: Yeah.

JAC: So what is your why? What gets you out of bed everyday.

MM:To be honest with you I feel like we have one life. I believe we have one life. And I believe that we are lucky to get up every day and there's many people that don't you know sometimes when I talk to organizations or at town halls I say that there's a reason you're in the audience and somebody else was in a car accident and we can't forget that you know there's many people who don't live past the age 16 or 25 or 10. So I just wake up with a lot of gratitude that I'm breathing and I know that I'm not here to take up space.

JAC:What I love about that is that I can hear you in your resolve your resilience as well. And speaking to sort of your resilience there's always failure that precedes it. So I know that you've spoken publicly about this before. I'm not outing you. But you took the bar six total times. Yes. You failed the first five. What allowed you to keep going? Or what drove you to keep going?

MM: You know with any goal just like we were having this discussion social media. We need to know what our ultimate reason for doing anything is my ultimate reason because I was a meddler from childhood was to be able to advocate for other people. I was very passionate and inspired by the civil rights movement of the 60s. I was very inspired around the world looking at individuals who would change power dynamics and how one person could make a huge difference. And I believe advocating for other people in that way, being a lawyer in that way would give me the ability to do that. So I knew I always wanted to do that. I also knew that I don't believe in the so-called notion of experts. I don't believe anybody is an expert. I think if someone says they're an expert then it's suspect because an expert if you really know about anything you know that there's so much more to know.

So a real expert kind of cautions themselves before they call themselves an expert. So when somebody is telling you that you are not able to pass a multiple choice test and that real life and application of the law and advocacy for the law is not a multiple choice test such as life is not a multiple choice test. When someone tells you that you have the choice to either believe it or to see through all that and I saw through all that I realize that you know I do. I'm not a good test taker. I'm not a good multiple choice test taker. And so I just have to figure out what to do. And I have to figure out this game. And I saw the bar as a game and every time I failed I focus on the goal of why I wanted it. And that kept me going. And you know my father said this to me when I was young: When you fail at something and you keep trying that becomes your personality your personality becomes the persistence. And I paid attention when my parents talked. That's another thing, I say that a lot in the book that my parents were the kind of parents that always spoke about certain things like general big things and then they come and hit you and you're an adult that kept me going that you know I'm going to learn something out of this and I'm going to learn that there's no shortcuts and I'm going to learn that I have to do this by myself and I remember after I failed the fifth time you know because you you have so many people saying oh there you go. Like she couldn't pass this test. But you know what your intellect is, you know what your ability is and you know what the reason was that you failed. So you don't listen to all of that. This is your life and your purpose. And you got to do what you got to do. So I remember I was at a brunch at a restaurant having brunch by myself because in those moments you have to be by yourself when you get a notice that you failed the fifth time. So I called the president of the board of admissions. I literally googled this gentleman and I googled where they worked. And I called him and I said listen this is what has happened in the process of taking this exam five times. I've also done this this and this such as developed policy and worked with other attorneys and then all this stuff even though the other people were signing off on my stuff because I couldn't sign off on it. I've done all the stuff so I know what I'm doing. I just can't pass this test. He listened for a while and then he said, you are just have to take it again. But let's talk. Let me let me call you back.

I never got a call back. So then what I did is that I wrote this long letter and I wrote this letter but everything that I had done while I was taking the bar exam to show him that I'm not just sitting here twiddling my thumbs. I'm studying and contributing as what I could do in my capacity and I wrote this long passionate letter I think it was like four pages long of everything that I was since I was a child an undergrad in high school and how I was student body president in high school in undergrad and law school and I was not someone who took a back seat and etc. No response. So then I called again and I said I wrote you a letter and he said you know I got your letter and I'm so glad you called and we shared it with all the members on the board of admissions because we were so inspired by your letter and we just want you to know. We all want you to take it again.

So obviously obviously I said OK and he goes I know you can do it. And I did. And I did and I passed. And what was hilarious about that this is the way God works is that I got the notice and I was so excited I went out for a drive and then I picked up some pizza. I was like in this mood like I was so excited. And then I got stopped for speeding. And it's like God saying like calm down. You did the work. We made it happen. Now let's not throw our hands up in the air you know.

JAC: Calm down, it's just a pizza party.

MM: It's so funny because even the cop was like I could smell the pizza in the car but it just put things in perspective and I pay attention to those things. You know whenever there are highs I enjoy them but I have perspective of why this high is occurring and when it's low I focus on what is the lesson that I'm being taught this time.

JAC: Along the way. And as a licensed attorney you started to mention, but you've advocated for change you've been inspired by the civil rights movement. You've been involved in essentially today's civil rights movement both through the travel ban and through food deserts. And I firmly believe that food is the first frontier when it comes to making change. There's more to it obviously. But can you talk through the steps that you've taking on the travel ban and what you're working on today?

MM: So this question really is not. I can speak from an attorney's perspective but really in general this is about finding your lane and finding a way to contribute to the issue. So as you stated I have three little kids and I have a husband and I have a home and I'm also just as the accomplishments professionally I'm very grateful for those. And I don't want them to slide ever because that those are really important to me. So for that reason I can't always go out when there's a protest or march I'm not able to do that I have bed time 7:30 8 o'clock homework is done. So I'm limited by those things but I am able to analyze law and I'm able to write policy and I'm able to communicate those ideas to other organizations and donate my time. So that's what I do. And right now.

So let's take the travel ban for example the travel ban came out. It identified six different countries. The first version that were majority Muslim. However the travel ban itself did not tie itself to any facts of why it was created because there is no evidence of domestic terrorism by Muslim Americans from those countries. So I am able to analyze these executive orders that are coming now. And you know how people say follow the money follow the money? I follow the intent. I'm interested in the intent I'm interested in why people are writing these laws. What is the administration thinking, whatever power? You know whoever is in power for that regard. So for the travel ban for example what I did is I analyzed the first travel ban and I wrote a response and analysis, a legal analysis of the fact that it was unconstitutional.

And I spoke to law professors a very good friend of mine Daria Rothmyer who's also a law professor and I discussed the process of why it was unconstitutional and how these executive orders actually really impact the rights of all Americans. And then I contacted legislators and I said this is my analysis. This is a bill also to call it unconstitutional. Congress should call it unconstitutional and I called different legislators and I got responses saying that this is great this is wonderful. We're really interested in advocating and so we did town halls with them which is great. But that issue specifically was left to the courts. Now there's other issues like that for example food deserts that came across my radar I would say about five years ago I read about food deserts and I'm like wow like I can't believe that there's no grocery stores in these areas.

And so I came across this research from this wonderful woman named Mary Gallagher and she had done this intense research in Detroit and in Chicago about food deserts and basically the quality of life and the hardship that occurs. And I was fascinated and I was like How can we make this into policy? How can we do something about this? And there are organizations that I work with and there's a really good organization called Inner-City Muslim Action Network. And they do grassroots organizing. And I met with the executive director there and I said let's let's do this. And they were already involved in advocating and building relationships between community members and liquor store owners. They were in that process. They had already voiced their concern for that so I was like, bam. This is what's interesting is like when you have your goal you don't have all the answers and you're not the one doing everything there's different partners that do different things.But it all comes together and sometimes you just someone needs to press go and everyone's like you know contributing and doing great work already so. So food deserts was like that.

And so I wrote a resolution that was unanimously passed in Illinois General Assembly about the importance of food deserts. And I worked with Senator Collins, Jackie Collins, in the Illinois State Senate to basically create a fresh food fund that would allow organizations to get money to be able to counter this idea. So that is a developing process policy works in this way where you identify an issue and then you work with different parties and come up with different ways to solve the problem. And right now you'd be surprised what I'm working on right now is that since the travel ban has happened we have seen that there are U.S. citizens, individuals that are detained at the airport. Their phones are taken, Facebook accounts, everything is requested. And these individuals despite being U.S. citizens are not able to see their attorney. And in fact we have called CBP the customs border patrol wanting to talk to clients and they would say well you know this is kind of a no man's zone and it's actually a privilege that they'll get to see you.

So there are people being searched as U.S. citizens because for some reason they fit some kind of description and majority of these cases all these people are just released they're like allowed to walk because they couldn't find anything on them. So the bill that I'm working on right now is to be able to make sure that if you are at CBP checkpoints you should have the right to call your attorney. No matter where you are and we have sent the bill to different legislators we're really wanting to see Illinois state senators to pick it up and that's what we're pushing for right now and I'm talking publicly about it so people can understand how vital and important it is.

JAC: Those are big issues issues big issues. Meanwhile while you're doing all of this you are also a triathlete. So I am curious to hear how your ideas of goal setting outside of the gym in sort of your public and professional life come into your goal setting when you're doing that sort of three sport athletic thing.

MM: I talk about this a lot in the book I have a whole chapter on the importance of physical fitness because I believe that if your body feels good then you will be able to contribute to society. I move out of the space of that the energy flows from what you put inside your body.

So triathlons why I even wanted to do triathlons. Number one I have like I said three little kids if I want them to have a good example of what a strong woman is, a strong mom is I can't just tell them about it. I have to be that. So my first time I did the triathlon I had a t shirt and on the T shirt I surprise my husband. My husband's initials are I.Q. so everyone calls him IQ and he is very smart.

So my T-shirt I wrote IQ's wife and then on the back I wrote Iza's mom. My eldest daughter is Isaiah and it was hilarious about this is that when I crossed the finish line. I do the triathlon but the speaker was like, IQ's wife! I was like, I did the whole triathlon, and he gets called out for it. But so I only share that that my whole purpose in that was to I got to finish this. I got to train for this because I want my child to have this memory of her mom wearing this t shirt. I want my husband to have this memory and it creates a culture in the household. And then the second time I did the triathlon I actually picked her up before I crossed the finish line and I ran with her across it. Probably not allowed. But guess what? It was a memory for her for a lifetime. And we have it on video and a picture of me doing that. So my physical fitness and my push to push my body is to serve as an example for everyone around me my family. I always say this about triathlons, triathlons are uniquely interesting because triathlons are like life right? It doesn't matter if you're first. It doesn't matter if you're last. The only thing that matters is that you cross the finish line smiling. And through the process you think you know how it's going to feel.But there's different stages. The swim may feel like oh I got this but in the middle it might get a little rocky. And then you're done with the swim and you want to pat yourself on the back but nope you got to go bike. So you've got to get up on that bike and then you're tired and your legs are exhausted and something may go wrong but you finish the bike. And then you're like, nope,  you're not done. You got to run. That's like life. There are different stages and when you finish that triathlon and you finish that whole race what are you left with? You're left with the fact that you went through all those stages and you kept going. And that's the only thing that makes you happy. I always share that story that every activity or challenge you put on yourself physically, think about how it fits into your big picture and your bigger goal. And of it gives you energy and it gives you that validation that you're doing something right and people around you getting inspired then you do it.

JAC: I love that. And at aSweatLife we believe that what you do inside the gym directly reflects the life you have outside of the gym and the way you set goals and achieve them. So it's great to hear you say that too.