Carly Henline

Philosophy 1000
Jane Drexler
April 30, 2021

Dear Interested Sponsor,

I wonder, are you familiar with philosophy? Have you pondered about why an individual

would study it? You might think that those who do study it only want to question everything.

Maybe many of us do not like it because it gives us feelings of uneasiness or anxiety about the

unknown. Even though most of us are not philosophers, we can practice some of their exercises

to help with our daily lives. For example, have you heard of Stoicism? This was a piece of

philosophy that was put forth by Zeno of Citium. The purpose of this is, “helping individuals

cultivate a character, a set of virtues that will enable them to withstand the worst that life can

throw at us.” Ultimately, it is meant to help us to know what is under our control and what is not.

By understanding this, it will help us to accept the world as it is. If we can govern our inner self,

we can regulate our attitudes and emotions. Which in turn could help impact external situations

that are most commonly out of our control. Have you at some point hired someone who had a

hard time with the things they were not able to control? Maybe they did try to control everything,

but ended up stretching themselves too thin? Do you think it would change your work

environment if we all practiced stoicism?

What if you could give your employees a glimpse of how stoicism could positively affect

their lives? We all know about meditation, which is an example of stoicism. There are more

exercises that you can do such as:

 1) Negative Visualization- To do this exercise, you must imagine everything that could go

wrong in your day. Such as losing your job, getting in an accident, losing a loved one, or

breaking up with a significant other. When you are consciously thinking of everything

that can go bad, it can help you if the situation does happen. Although it can still be

rough, it makes it easier to handle.

2) Voluntary Discomfort- For us to grow we purposefully do things we are not comfortable

with. When we are pressing our boundaries, it helps us to learn more about our internal

strengths. “It strengthens our mind to endure hardship, whenever this may befall

us. Exposing ourselves to hardships in untroubled times prepares us for more difficult

times ahead. It is training for the mind. I like to see voluntary discomfort as a trade

between feeling a little bit worse right now to be stronger in the future.” (Voluntary

Discomfort 2020)

3) Adding a Reserve Clause- This one is quite simple. We have many things we want to do

in any given day. By adding this clause “If nothing prevents me,” makes it easier to

accept if we are not able to accomplish this task. We do not blame ourselves because we

understand that it was out of our control.

Many of us have heard of Buddha. He was known for attaining enlightenment or most

commonly being “The Awakened One”. Though if you are not Buddhist, you might not be

familiar with his story. Siddhartha Gautama or Gautama Buddha was born into Hinduism. When

he was born his father had heard a prophecy that his son would grow up to be a great king unless

he saw four sights of suffering at a young age. If he did witness these sights, he would renounce

his nobility and live the life of a peasant. His father tried everything he could to prevent him

from this fate. He kept the young boy in the palace and gave him whatever he wanted in life.
That is until young Gautama snuck out one day. He saw 4 things that he had never seen before.

These things were: an old man, a sickly man, a dead man, and an ascetic man. Each of these

sights had affected him greatly as he had only known a life of luxury in the palace. He did not

know that we age, get sick, or die. He did not realize that there was an end to this life. This all

frightened him. He feared the fate that he would have. Until he saw the ascetic man.

When he saw this sight, Gautama realized that he could achieve a higher sense of self. He

wanted to know why he was here. He had gone from having everything he ever wanted to

nothing. After several years, he had not achieved enlightenment. He wanted something between

these two extremes. He came up with the idea of “The Middle Way”. This gave him the ability to

have both, and this helped him to achieve enlightenment. Although his life was quite different

from the prophecy his father was told about. I believe that he was quite content with his life after

achieving this.

Lastly, I would like to touch on the works of a more modern philosopher, John Stuart

Mill. As an employer, it can be difficult to be impartial in all situations. However, Mill

encourages us to try our best. “The happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is

right in conduct is not the agent’s own happiness but that of all concerned.” (What Utilitarianism

Is) This means that as we think about what will cause the greatest happiness for our employees

means that we can not only think of ourselves. We must think for the entire company. This will

help assure that our employees are happier.

If we give them the chance to practice any of these meditations it might help them to be

more productive, and they could be more relaxed if they took the exercises seriously. By taking

the time to teach your employees these skills they can carry this into the rest of their lives and
learn how to accept that things rarely happen the way we want them to. This can help us to live

longer, happier, and healthier lives.

Thank you,

Carly Henline
Works Cited:

“Voluntary Discomfort.” Stoic Journey, 20 Dec. 2020, stoicjourney.org/2020/12/20/voluntary-

discomfort/.

“What Utilitarianism Is” John Stuart Mill

https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/656493/pages/module-10-required-reading-john-stuart-
mill-utilitarianism?module_item_id=13395788