Who Moved My Cheese By Spencer Johnson, M.D

Sniff and Scurry, the mice. – They’re not very smart but they have good instincts.  They look for cheese as mice normally do.

Hem and Haw, the littlepeople – They have superior brainpower to the mice, and they are capable of choosing their own beliefs and emotions. They spend their days looking for Cheese as well - the human kind of cheese - success, wealth, happiness, or whatever your deepest desire is.

The mice used trial and error to find their cheese. They would sniff the air and follow their nose in the hope of finding cheese. This logic was simple but it was laborious as the mice would often get lost and bump into walls and run into dead ends.

The people were smarter than the mice and relied on their ability to think and reason with clarity, and the ability to learn from past failures.

They found an abundant supply of cheese at station C.  Whereas the littlepeople grew comfortable, they were leisurely in their approach and claimed the cheese as "theirs". They felt a sense of entitlement to the Cheese, they felt secure now that they had it in abundance. They would even muse and sleep during the day right next to the Cheese. They were set for life. They were oblivious to everything else happening around them.

The mice on the other hand were vigilant. They never let the presence of cheese go to their heads.  The mice prepared themselves for any eventuality, they woke up early each morning and always had their running shoes close by.

And on one fateful morning, the mice and littlepeople came in to Station C only to find that all the cheese was gone.

The mice were not taken by surprise. They had been expecting this to happen and had prepared themselves for it. They were not as dumbfounded as the littlepeople and they knew exactly what to do. It was an easy decision for them: the situation had changed and they decided to change as well. They started their search for new cheese.

For the littlepeople, it was quite a daunting challenge to get out of their comfort zone and start looking for cheese. They felt hard done by and betrayed as they had not been paying attention to the small changes happening around them, and thus were unprepared for what they found. They had no idea what to do.  Finding Cheese was not easy.  Feelings of depression, frustration, anger and confusion started to sink in.

"Who moved my cheese?" Hem kept yelling.

He was looking for somebody to blame.  He was afraid of accepting the responsibility to change. He refused to believe that he was ignorant to the fact that the Cheese had been gradually declining. His sense of entitlement was blinding him to the reality of the situation.

The mice on the other hand were focused. They were focused on their goal. They kept moving and searching. No excuses - just an intense resolve and determined action in the direction of their goal.

Chasing your dreams involves some level of uncertainty, but the uncertainty only lasts for a short while.

"If you don't change, you can become extinct." Writes the author.  The question to ask is not "who moved my cheese?" But rather, "how can I pick myself up and move with the cheese?” An even more empowering question would be, what would you do if you weren't afraid? Change occurs frequently whether you're ready or not, will you adapt to change or will you hold on to the familiar?

Ultimately, everyone has to find their own way, beyond their fears and their comforts.

Haw finally realised this and began to move and search for cheese. He faced many struggles on the road to cheese, but he never gave up. He wrote all the new insights he was learning on the wall with the hope that Hem would follow and be guided by the inscriptions on the wall.

When Haw finally arrived at the new cheese station, he was blown away, it was utterly amazing, better than anything he had seen before. The variety was great and the sight was breath-taking. Above all, he found 2 familiar faces, sniff and scurry, who welcomed him warmly. Haw realised that if he had moved sooner with the cheese, he would have been here, enjoying the benefits, much sooner.

He thought about Hem. Could he still be in the cheese-less station...?

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing the same way

but expecting different results, hence there is a difference between activity and productivity.

Fear of the unknown cripples people.  And the longer they stay in fear, the worse off their situation becomes. In most cases, what you fear is never as bad as what you imagine. And the reality of the matter is that no amount of worrying can change the future and no amount of regret can change the past. If you are going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think positive thoughts.

New empowering beliefs encourage new behaviors. Learning from past experiences helps you make better decisions in the future.

The guiding factor in every decision you make is the consequence that will follow the action. Ask yourself: what will happen if you do change? How will this serve your purpose? And, what will happen if you don’t change? How will this serve your purpose?  The answers you get will let you know which action is more beneficial.

Jim Rohn says that his life began to change for the better when he decided to change himself and stop making excuses and blaming the environment or other people for his own inadequacies.