I Moved Your Cheese By Deepak Malhotra

Consider your life right now,

do you feel like the master of your fate and captain of your ship?

Are you running your own race or following the crowd?

According to its author, Deepak Malhotra, I Moved Your Cheese was written to encourage readers to question their assumptions about the limitations they actually face in their lives.  I Moved Your Cheese aims to help you think about how you can exert more control over your life, instead of just being another mouse in the maze, chasing cheese with no end in sight.

Instead of running around without purpose and joy,

Deepak Malhotra wants you to decide for yourself

what the purpose of your life will be.

Why do you do what you do in life, in your career, in your social environment? What’s the purpose of your daily grind?

Are you happy with the person you are becoming or have become?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading I Moved Your Cheese, and here are my biggest lessons from reading the book.

The maze in I Moved Your Cheese is a metaphor for the status quo, the widely held rules and norms of society.

Max is the first character introduced by the author, and Max challenges the status quo at every turn.  He is an inquisitive little mouse who questions the widely held assumptions

of his environment. And when he fails to get the knowledge

he seeks from within the maze, he resolves to get out

of the maze and find some real answers.

In his quest, Max overcomes many challenges and setbacks but he never gives up his pursuit.  He is determined and stoic in his resolve.  We learn from Max that where there is a will, there is a way. 

Even though he was being rebuked and scorned for his questions and his refusal to accept circumstances as they were, he never let other people’s opinions deter him from his purpose.  Max had a goal – Max had a vision – and he was willing to lay it all on the line for what he believed to be the truth.  His grit and determination led him to the answers he sought.

Now my question to you is,

what can you do to strengthen your own resolve?

What false assumptions do you hold that may be holding you back?

What needs to happen for you to break free from these false beliefs?

Zed is the second character introduced to us by the author. 

From Zed, we learn that the journey to happiness begins

with self-awareness.  Doing things (aka, running the maze)

may have you believing that you are accomplishing worthy goals,

but what good is all that if the things you do and accomplish

don’t make you happy?

Zed asks,

“Is it possible to pursue happiness

if the pursuit itself doesn’t make you happy?”

He laments the fact that other mice in the maze simply accept

their environment “as is”, without questioning why - without questioning who is responsible for the changes that happen in the maze. Zed encourages the mice to start finding themselves - instead of finding cheese… to start running their lives – instead of running the maze.

He encourages you, the reader, to start asking the important questions – to take time to evaluate the paths you are taking

(the decisions you are making in pursuit of your goals).

He encourages you to free yourself from the trap

of your “stinking thinking”, and to discover what your happiness really depends upon… to discover your own purpose

and run your own race instead of being controlled like a robot.

And finally, from Zed we learn that your mind is the ultimate master.  You must learn to work with your mind to achieve ultimate freedom. It all starts in the mind. If the shift doesn't happen in your mind, it will never happen in your outer reality.

The third, and possibly the biggest insight for me was learning that “The problem is not that the mouse is in the maze,

but that the maze is in the mouse.”

How many of your limitations are self-imposed

and how many are imposed by others?

Deepak Malhotra argues that ultimately all your limitations

are self-imposed. If you find yourself in a negative and limiting environment, why don’t YOU break free? What fears are holding you back? What emotions or thoughts are you harboring that prevent you from making progress towards your ultimate goal and ultimate purpose? Think about it.  Who is the master of those thoughts

and emotions? Is it not you?

Big is another intriguing character, discussed in I Moved Your Cheese, who breaks free from the limitations of the maze.

His method of escape is different to that of Zed and Max,

but it is effective nonetheless.

This serves to confirm that you don’t have to be like everyone else

to achieve the success you want.  Be yourself – do it your way – enjoy the journey. Just punch through the wall of your limited thinking and enjoy the freedom that comes with escaping the maze, escaping the rat race, enjoying life on your own terms, and fulfilling your own purpose. The prison within your own mind is more fierce than the prison created by the powers that be. In order to break free from the prison created by your environment, you first have to break free from the prison in your own mind. There's no other way.

Mental emancipation is what we need more than any other thing.

I Moved Your Cheese relates the stories of three different characters who break free from their limitations, in three different ways, to find freedom.  This proves to me that running your own race is very important to a happy and successful life. 

There are many different paths, all leading to the same destination.  You don’t have to do what your neighbour is doing.  You don’t have to become what your parents told you to become.  Make your own decisions – find your own path.  Life is NOT a one-size-fits-all affair.  Run your own race!

What you need is self-awareness to enable you to make informed decisions about what makes you happy and what your ultimate purpose in life will be.

Once you make that decision, you need to be relentless in your pursuit.  Don’t let minor obstacles get in the way of your happiness.

Lastly, don’t accept anything blindly.  Question the assumptions – break the rules (not the law) – ignore constraints and find your own path to escape the maze.

I Moved Your Cheese also contains questions for reflection designed for individuals, book clubs, organizations, educators and managers to examine their environment and decide for themselves whether

to remain in the maze or attempt to break free.

Have you read the book?

What were some of the biggest lessons

you took away from your reading?

Share your thoughts and questions below.