How to Overcome Negative Thoughts and Fear

By Jon Gordon

“Do you struggle with fear?”

Every hand in the audience went up when I asked the question.

“Do your negative thoughts come from you?”

“Are you sure,” I asked? “Who would ever choose to have a negative thought?” Eyes widened, some heads shook and a few people smiled. They were having an Aha moment.

I then explained that your negative thoughts don’t come from you. They come from consciousness. They pop in at random times or, for some, more frequently.

A thought’s power only comes from the power you give it. You don’t have to give your negative thoughts power.

They are like an unwanted surprise guest that shows up at your front door to tell you how weak, unworthy, insignificant and incapable you are.

But here’s the deal. Like any unwanted surprise guest, you decide whether or not to entertain them. A thought’s power only comes from the power you give it. You don’t have to give your negative thoughts power. You can ignore them. You can see them for what they truly are: lies, lies, lies.

Always remember that just because you have a negative thought doesn’t mean you have to believe it.

Fear is a liar and if you struggle with fear and negative thoughts, it’s because you believe the lies that they tell. Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear looks and feels true but it isn’t.

Fear says you aren’t strong enough, good enough, successful enough, wealthy enough, happy enough, smart enough, talented enough. Well, I say enough with fear. Instead, know the truth. You have everything you need inside you to be successful. You weren’t meant to be average. You have a desire to be great because you were created and born to do great things. You have a purpose. There’s a plan for your life. You may be going through a hard time now but the best is yet to come.

When fear and negativity pop in your head you can ignore them or speak truth to the lies. That’s what I do and I was thrilled to hear that’s what the singer Jewel does as well. I was recently listening to an interview she did on The Finding Mastery Podcast and she said she makes a list of all the lies fear tells. Then she writes down the truth next to the lies. She said it has given her a lot of power and freedom.

It can do the same for you. There is a tremendous amount of freedom in knowing that negative thoughts are not coming from you. There’s a ton of power in knowing that you don’t have to believe the lies. You can know and live the truth and just keep moving forward with belief, optimism, faith and grit.

During the Australian Open Championship a few years ago, Roger Federer lost the first few games of the 5th and deciding set to Rafael Nadal. Federer said that at the time he thought “It’s probably not going to happen for me tonight.” A thought popped in and then it popped out. He didn’t energize it. He just kept playing one point after another and eventually won the set and the match.

You can do the same. No matter what thoughts come your way, you have everything you need to accomplish your task. Thoughts will come and go, but you just stay in the game and keep moving forward. The truth is that the best is yet to come. Do you believe it?

Jon Gordon’s best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits. He is the author of 20 books including 8 best-sellers: The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, You Win in the Locker Room First, The Power of Positive Leadership, The Power of a Positive Team, The Coffee Bean and his latest Stay Positive. His clients include The Los Angeles Dodgers, Campbell’s Soup, Dell, Publix, Southwest Airlines, Miami Heat, The Los Angeles Rams, Snapchat, BB&T Bank, Clemson Football, Northwestern Mutual, West Point Academy and more.

PWH ® is Here for You

In this time of great uncertainty and medical need, Professional Women in Healthcare® (PWH®) wants the indus

try to know, “We are here for you.” Although the leadership development organization had to cancel its annual Leadership Summit, PWH ® leaders immediately secured dates for next year (May 17-19, 2021) and found new ways to continue the organization’s mission virtually.

“We formed a COVID-19 Task Force,” said PWH Chair Elect Vicky Lyle (who also serves as Op VP, Service Line Strategy). The PWH COVID-19 Task Force is dedicated to helping the industry during this time of quarantine, delivering relevant webinars and providing forums to share insights. From technology to personal wellness, this content is free for the industry, updated weekly and available at www.mypwh.org/Resource-Series.

“We have built a strong culture of leaders who are behind our mission to empower women to lead and succeed – especially during critical times,” said PWH Chair Rachelle Ferrara. “We’ve also reached out to our corporate partners to find out what these organizations are doing to inspire their teams and protect their employees.”

Midmark

Midmark provides essential equipment, technology and services that its customers need to diagnose and treat

patients. To manage this safely, Midmark created a dedicated COVID19 task force to monitor developments of facilities, supply chains and required guidelines. To help ensure the safety of Midmark employees, Vice President of Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Schwieterman immediately produced informational videos to clarify and contextualize public health information into consumable and actionable content. He, along with a team of senior leaders also visited the majority of Midmark production facilities to talk with essential employees and plant leaders. “These conversations helped those employees feel confident that their company and its leaders know what they are doing,” said Dr. Schwieterman. “Policies put in place have stuck. Temperature taking is now routine.”

“One resonating attribute of Midmark’s culture is the running to the ball concept,” said Dr. Schwieterman. “From the head of human resources to the head of production

workflow, in every circumstance there was leadership savvy. You simply had to say: ‘Here is the problem,’ and the leaders just did what needed to be done.”

Vice President of Sales Matt Bourne demonstrates that savvy. “Major conferences, very routine milestone meetings and appointments just got cancelled,” Bourne said. “Right away we looked introspectively to consider the effects on our workforce and workflow.” Bourne crafted a model of a salesperson’s working from home workweek to ensure his team knew how to access resources and remain productive. Bourne also helped devise a system of internal sales communication. A commitment to it ensures all contributions get recorded and shared, so all team members realize their importance. “This process gives our team members a new sense of purpose,” said Bourne. “They are our intelligence, and that intelligence gets communicated vertically and horizontally.”

Vizient

In February, Vizient leaders recognized a pandemic heading for the United States and immediately put together a “war room.” In addition to working closely with government agencies, hospitals, associations and other GPOs, the 70+ cross-functional team at Vizient relentlessly explores all possible opportunities to source and facilitate contracts to help support its member healthcare providers.

“Our member-driven mentality drives everything we do,” said Vice President, Strategic Communications & Public Relations Angie Boliver. “All employees see ourselves as extensions of the hospitals we serve, and everyone is giving their all to support caregivers and their patients.”

Vizient also continues to update the White House and FDA with findings about drug shortages and is one of several helping to build a new ventilator exchange program. “We are going to come out of this and need a materially different healthcare supply chain,” said Group Senior Vice President, Sourcing Analytics, Operations, and Center of Excellence Cathy Denning.

Owens & Minor

Owens & Minor also took early action to mitigate risk. According to Execute Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer Shana Neal, “We were continually monitoring the situation and made sure to take swift and proactive measures to ensure the safety of our teammates in all environments, including our distribution and manufacturing facilities, our teammates working onsite at hospitals and those in our office environments.” The company implemented new remote work for those able to do so. For the

teammates working every day to manufacture and distribute essential products, Owens & Minor is providing PPE, conducting temperature checks, instituting social distancing and elevating sanitation protocol for all facilities.

“We know that this is a trying time for all teammates,” said Neal. “We’ve enhanced benefits and are providing extra support, including training, for teammates across the organization.” In addition to adjusting sanitation measures and limiting visitors to all locations, Owens & Minor is offering telehealth consultations, flexible leave options, and access to an Employee Assistance Helpline for all teammates. Owens & Minor is also focused on maintaining business continuity to support the best possible patient outcomes.

NDC Inc.

As a unique healthcare supply chain company, NDC also remains devoted to the industry, its distributor and manufacturing partners, and its employees. “Throughout this pandemic, NDC remains committed to our core values,” said President and CEO Mark Seitz. “These values are providing a guiding light as our leadership team adjusts the business and leads our teams in response to these unprecedented times.”

NDC’s employees and customers remain the organization’s top priority during the COVID era. Corporate employees have transitioned to remote work environments wherever possible, and enhanced procedures have been implemented to protect those essential functions that require working from the office and distribution centers. NDC warehouses remain fully operational, with safety measures such as temperature checks and mandatory PPE during shifts.

“The dedication and loyalty exhibited by our ‘warehouse warriors’ is nothing short of heroic,” said Chief Commercial Officer Mark Kline. “We are committed to continuing to operate, serve the frontlines of healthcare, and navigate the challenges of allocations, supply shortages and ongoing distribution challenges. NDC’s unique independent position in the supply chain allows us to not only service large hospitals and institutions, but also support those distributors delivering to rural hospitals, family physicians and specialty practices – providers that are a staple in the communities they serve.”

PWH thanks its corporate partners and members for their heroic efforts. Please join PWH online and in person next summer at the PWH Leadership Summit May 17-19, 2021 in Denver, Colorado, to empower women to lead and succeed even during critical times.

Building Upon the Fundamentals

Things are always changing, but Dan Woods, field sales consultant for Henry Schein, is determined to find solutions for customers.

By Mark Thill

Do you want to learn how to get a really firm fix on your customers’ wants and needs? Try selling health and fit

ness aids to consumers. Dan Woods did it for three years at The Vitamin Shoppe in Pittsford, New York, and he’ll never regret it.

“Working for The Vitamin Shoppe taught me a lot about face-to-face selling and one-on-one selling,” says Woods, a field sales consultant for Henry Schein in Charlotte, North Carolina. “This was the position that confirmed my interest in selling in person. It was great connecting with different customers, learning what their goals are, and ultimately providing a few different solutions for them to reach their end goal.”

Strong communication skills

Woods was born and raised in Upstate New York, about 15 miles south of the Lake Ontario shore. At Fairport High School, he was on the varsity golf team, and he was varsity basketball manager for two years. In college, he majored in communications, and for a couple of months while at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, was an assistant producer for a couple of radio programs for Clear Channel Communications.

“I decided to go with communications as a major because I felt it could apply to many different professions,” he says. “In school, most communication programs are thought to be more for public relations professionals,

media roles, etc. However, communications are also critical in the sales field, especially in the medical sales arena. Things are changing at lightning speed, and by having strong communication skills, it only helps me be the best I can be for my customer base.”

If sports and communication were in his blood from way back, so was sales. Growing up, he enjoyed seeing his father, Daniel, interacting with corporate customers, to whom he sold business process solutions. “There were never two of the ‘same’ day, and I can remember wanting to get into sales at a young age due to the ever-changing, fast paced lifestyle,” he recalls.

His mother, Christine, is a seventh-grade special education teacher. “In her position, she has the opportunity every day to change students’ lives for the better. I try to implement those same characteristics with my customers daily by teaching, tailoring and showing empathy throughout the whole sales process.”

In 2014 he became an inside sales representative for the PGA TOUR in Jacksonville, Florida, selling ticket packages at designated Championship Management events, conducting on-course appointments and tours, and generating leads among regional businesses and prospective customers. Ten months later, he became a sales representative for the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, one of the PGA’s oldest events.

“My leadership team really taught me the fundamentals of how to sell,” says Woods, referring to those in the golf industry. It turns out those fundamentals built upon the ones he had learned at The Vitamin Shoppe.

“Every sales call is like taking someone’s temperature,” he says. “You have to measure the ‘temperature’ of the customer, that is, his or her wants and needs, and base your solutions on that.” It’s not a one-size-fits-all proposition, he adds.

He did not take lightly the decision to leave Wyndham Championship for a career in medical sales with Henry Schein in April 2017. “It was one of the toughest decisions I have ever made, but it was worth it for a few different reasons. When corporate objectives line up with personal ethics standards, and feature the opportunity to grow professionally, there is nothing more an employee can ask of its employer. Simply put, I feel lucky to rep the Henry Schein brand day in and day out. With this industry seeing so much change in such a short amount of time, there are endless opportunities to learn.

“When I entered this medical sales role, one of the biggest adjustments I had to make was learning/understanding the numerous product lines we sell and the different solutions we offer,” he continues. “To be completely honest, I was lost in the beginning, but over time, through customer interactions and numerous training modules, I was able to start putting the puzzle pieces together. After an insanely fast 3 years of working in the industry, it’s the people within Henry Schein that have helped me become the best I can be. Once I was able to understand our fully integrated sales team model, results started to show.”

Woods believes one of his customers’ biggest concerns is simply trying to stay ahead of rapid changes in healthcare. Those whose practices are owned or managed by healthcare systems are feeling some pressure to cut costs by, among other things, standardizing the products and equipment they use.

When corporate objectives line up with personal ethics standards, and feature the opportunity to grow professionally, there is nothing more an employee can ask of its employer.

For some, it’s not an easy adjustment. “It can be extremely hard to navigate this space, but when it is done, customers are forever thankful,” he says. His communication skills help.

“Keeping the communication channels open, whether it be with in-person meetings, phone calls, or email (providing information in a fast and effective way), is how I am able to make sure customers can rely on us for their healthcare needs.

“I think the most effective way to address customer concerns is by being a student of the industry,” he adds. “Things are always changing, but we need to adapt to the market. By sharing best practices, communicating effective solutions when certain issues arise, and being a true partner to the practice, we can address customer concerns. It is important to convey the fact that we are all in it together.”

Woods is engaged to be married to Libby Lechner, a licensed practical nurse who is studying to become an RN.