2020: 5 Reflections. 3 Predictions. A Call to Action. One Wish.

I finally, nervously, put pen to paper to reflect on 2020 and get ready for 2021.

5 REFLECTIONS

#1: Change is hard, but it always has a silver lining. 

I had the best Christmas I’ve ever had. Don’t get me wrong. I dearly and terribly missed my family and friends, my brothers, my baby nephew, my elderly parents who are moving from my hometown for good in January, traditions, long dinners, the cheese and cracker course, the poppers, the party hats, the lazing around in a big group chatting and drinking (eggnog > wine > coffee). I missed I missed I missed. 

But seared vividly into my 2020 Christmas memory is unscheduled time with my immediate family, rarely together as a 4-some for down time. Precious, uninterrupted time with each of my baby girls, Emory (4) and Arlyn (3). I wandered to the creek with Em and Lou for a rock jumping challenge, chatter about squirrels and chestnuts, crisp fresh air, and no phone. Emory is smart and beautiful. Her smile, that inquisitive face. I fall in love looking at her and I haven’t had that kind of time with her in a long time. Often I’m a single mom juggling both girls and a company, with Ben on 16 hour days at the hospital. Arlyn and I spent wonderful hours on her new magnetic doll kit, talking about what she wanted to be when she grew up and dressing the dolls accordingly. I kissed her sweet feet and active fingers. 

We lay as a family in one bed in the winter dark at 5 am on Christmas morning. We don’t do this often. It’s not our daily life. Nor is it probably yours. But we should all be able to believe in, and live in, this kind of magic, every once in a while. Just enough. 

#2: Uncertainty is paralyzing, but it’s a wise teacher. 

As an entrepreneur with an early stage company, mom of two toddlers, and spouse of an NYC surgeon, I spent a good 3 months of our pandemic-burdened lives feeling in a state of total paralysis. Sometimes at work I would go into our factory, an old auto body shop with concrete floors and burnt orange walls, and stare at the wall in front of me. Asking “what have I done.” 

We pivoted our company from building partnerships with gyms, coaches, and trainers to reaching the general public directly in your living rooms with our equipment and training. We were undercapitalized to make a dent, but we pressed on, as you did too. I wrestled with uncertainty every day. Made my CEO decisions with a fraction of the knowledge I wanted to have. Considering constantly if we were being safe and using good judgment in light of New York Covid conditions. 

I came within weeks of closing our factory doors in June, before we got our call to throw a Hail Mary and pitch on Shark Tank in August. Coming out the other side of this woodchipper, now a rocketship on the heels of a corporate debut on primetime Friday night TV, I hold tight to the lessons of those dark months. I’m more comfortable in my own skin, my own leadership, learning and listening, but still deciding, never knowing more than about 10% of what I wish I knew, or having that crystal ball. 

#3: Children have a sacred resilience and strength we must preserve. 

We should invest every penny and ounce of energy we have in their joy, energy, happiness, and curiosity. We should also spend more time learning from them. I watch how fast my girls recover. I’ve watched them absorb the mask-wearing, social-distanced, winter porch visiting, zoom-schooling, waving from afar reality we live in. They have emotion. They get genuinely sad and confused. But they bounce back with vigor and they move on. At least for a while. We can not risk breaking them. Their light must fuel our next generation and the healing of our world. I was inspired to "adopt a child" this Christmas through The ChildFund, an organization that supports early childhood education around the world. To anyone with the means: consider supporting this mission.

#4: Strength and good health have clear, present, and life-saving powers. 

It's finally time. For us to acknowledge that we are failing. Together. This is not doom and gloom coming from me. The opposite! An opportunity to change! To stand up, together, and demand that we make our families, communities, and society healthier and stronger. This is a reflection that doubles as a bold call to action (see below!). We have the irrefutable data that pre-existing health conditions that are either influenceable or preventable all together have made us 5 times more vulnerable to die from an airborne, life-threatening disease. It’s as simple as that. I am on this earth to help. And FitFighter is here to help. Let’s do this. 

#5: Sticks, stones, and words can all hurt! (But I agree: words are short term).

For those watching the FitFighter journey, it may seem all glory and guts, less hardship, now that we have a strong foundation and trajectory. But I get emotionally rocked by the tailwinds just the same. I am here to support you in whatever challenges to your confidence that you have! Check out this screenshot of dirtbag comments in response to Barbara Corcoran’s tweets about my Shark Tank pitch. And we all sit here and wonder why in 2020 we’re still facing gender and race discrimination? I don’t wonder. I have spent my entire professional career in male-dominated environments. Always exceeding standards. I am a United States Army Veteran and former Volunteer Firefighter getting slammed on Twitter for being strong and healthy. I don’t resent it. But I am going to change it. Together, with you, as a team. 

3 PREDICTIONS (PS: also “Hopes" and “Proposals!") 

#1: We’ll keep going outside!

Riding bikes, planting gardens, walking around in bare feet, doing snow angels and playing pickup soccer. I think this will keep happening. Yes I think we’ll drown ourselves in our coveted norms once the world opens its wings fully to social interactions and large groups and rock concerts and ball games. But I believe that we’ve seen and felt the warm bright light of the sun and the simple things. We’ll keep going outside to breathe fresh air and put down our phones and have a laugh and a chat with a can of beer and some kids and a swing set. I hope for sweeping legislative policy on conservation and climate, and behavioral change to match it.

#2: We'll invent and innovate more than ever. 

The New York Times published a wonderful tribute to new companies launched during Covid and I was amazed. Pioneers! I loved it. The risk is that we will over-engineer things. Come up with hyper-niche products and ideas that are short term. But my hope is that we’ll keep it simple, big, and brilliant. Electric cars. Meatless meat. Focus on big and critical world problems, and small and important community problems. Smart people will dedicate their time and energy and resources to solving problems and forging important collaborations. History tells us that crisis and chaos and times of hardship breed innovation. I think that optimism, joy and curiosity will reign because we’re done with the alternative. 

#3: Women will show up. 

With a female Vice President in the White House and a year of unrest under our belt, women are going to show up. After all, women have caregiving in their genes (I have two daughters: I will arm wrestle you on this one). So they will continue to nurture in this time of great need for it. We will also gain confidence from VP-Elect Kamala Harris given her historical role and her inspiration to us. We will not let 2021 go by without leveraging strides in equality. Make no mistake: we have lost a lot of ground in the service professions — finance, law, medicine — as we face the Covid childcare crisis and new professional norms. But we’ll show up. We’re here to stay. 

A CALL TO ACTION FOR LEADERS

Leaders need to talk about basic health and wellness, every time they have the microphone. They need to stick their necks out, condemn unhealthy lifestyles and give us the facts about how it will kill us. It drove me bonkers this year to keep hearing about death tolls and critical conditions from Covid-19 — none of which I would deemphasize — without emphasizing that existing conditions made us 5 times more vulnerable to this disease. And why aren’t we magnifiying the many strong dramatic and joyous recoveries from the disease?! We can beat it too! With strength. And health. We can come together and change this team. But it takes top down leadership and bottom up community activation. I am here to be a part of it, and be a loud, tireless voice. 

A SINGLE WISH

My single wish for us in 2021 is that we fall in love with regular daily life and obsess about movement and strength. We drown ourselves in the power of our greatest asset, our own body. The power it has to create joy — flinging your toddler around or crouching for hours with sidewalk chalk. To create possibilities — playing tennis with your daughter at age 70 and having the posture and confidence for a winning sales pitch. To speed recovery — from a hip or knee replacement. To prevent injury and pain altogether — from throwing out your back while shoveling snow. Did you know that there are over 11,500 injuries and 100 deaths per year from shoveling snow, most commonly in people 55 and over and due to cardiac and slipping related incidents? We have the power to change. And the big non-secret is that we don’t need to discover it first, or come up with a cure. We just need to come together and make a demand. If not for us, for the next generation behind us. 

2021 will be epic because it offers a light in a long tunnel. But we can make it WAY MORE EPIC if we go outside, innovate, show up, celebrate strength, and move like never before. 

Cheers and Love. — Sarah Apgar, Founder and Team Captain, FitFighter