Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson About the Book This book is about change and how it can affect how you are in life. Some people take changes hard while others just go with the flow. Some are ready for change while others want things to never change. This is a story about change, where “Cheese” is whatever you want at work or in life. And “The Maze” is where you look at it.
The Characters The story has four characters who live in a maze: the mice Scurry (scurries into action) and Sniff (sniffs out change early), and two 'little people', Hem and Haw who represent parts of all of us egardless of age, gender, race, or nationality – as we all share something in common: a need to find our way in the Maze – and succeed in changing times. The Story Every day, these characters run through a maze sniffing for their own special cheese. The mice had simple brains but good instincts. They use simple method of trial and error – if one corridor is empty they run down another.
Hem and Haw have complex brains with beliefs and emotions that made their life in the maze more complicated and challenging. Finding cheese is very important to the little people, it was a way of getting what they thought they needed that ill make them happy and successful. For some it’s having material things and for some it’s having a peace of mind. Sometimes they do well but at times their beliefs and emotions take over and cloud the issue. They all found a huge source of their favorite food - cheese at the Cheese Station C and all went very well. Hem and Haw even moved their houses to be near it and it has become the center of their lives.
They became so confident the cheese will always be there they didn’t notice that it was getting smaller, and were devastated when they arrived at the site one morning and found the cheese gone. This is where the story splits in two.Scurry and Sniff quickly accepted the loss of the cheese and went off into the maze in search of other sources. The little people, because they have built their lives around the big cheese, felt they were the victim of some kind of fraud or theft. Yet this only made things worse, as their clinging on ensured that they would go hungry.
Meanwhile, the mice moved on and found new cheese. The mice however focused on finding new cheese-and found a new area - Cheese Station N - and a huge supply of new cheese. The little people meanwhile went over and over what went wrong and blamed each other for the situation they were in.Finally, Haw went on finding new cheese, embraced his fears and focused on what he could gain instead of what he might loose, and find some new cheese to keep him going. He then felt better - at least he had the gut to move on.
What you think you are afraid of is never as bad as what you imagine. After long searching, he found Cheese Station N - the biggest chunkiest pile of cheese he’d ever seen and there were Sniff and Scurry, their fat little bellies showed they’d been there for some time. He realized he’d learned something from his chums who keep life simple – when the cheese moved they moved with the cheese, they adapted and were well repared for bigger changes that were sure to follow. The fable captures well that moment after we have lost a job or a relationship and we believe it is the end of the world. All the good things were in the previous situation, and all the future holds is fear. Yet the author's message is, instead of seeing change as the end of something, we must learn to see it as a beginning.
We have all been told this, but sometimes motivation is lacking. To make himself accept reality, Haw writes this on the wall of the maze: "If you do not change, you can become extinct. " For life not to be wasted, it demands a level of risk and adventure.If you are willing to live this way, change loses its horror. What the Little men, Hem and Haw, discover is that breaking through your fears makes you free. Those who continually seek security, ironically, are wracked by the possibility that they may lose it.
I feel I most identify with Hem and Haw because they are afraid to change but know that if they want to eat, they will have to change. I enjoyed being where I was, reluctant to look at the changes around me. Then one day I realized I have lost my cheese and I wasn’t ready for it. I wanted someone around me to put my cheese back in its place.
Disappointed and frustrated, I lamented on the world. Sometimes I wanted to get cheese all for me. And this made me scattered into pieces. One of my best friends, told me I should become Sniff and Scurry, to move on and find another cheese. I told her I’d try but I never wanted to and got stuck into the station waiting for someone to move the cheese to me.
Then, one day, I awoke with the thought of moving on and that there would be nobody to sacrifice their cheese for me. So I moved on and realized that nobody moved my cheese but I let it slip off my hands. So in the process of moving on, I found a ew cheese and little by little picking up the scattered pieces of me. This made me realize that moving on and changing to find better cheese would let go the little selfishness in me. Realizations Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The point of the story was we have to be alert on the changes in the cheese and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.
Adapting to change is one of the secrets of a contented life. Change is scary. Don’t assume all change is good – people need to be convinced intellectually and emotionally.
