Who Moved My Cheese?
When confronting change are you likely to sniff out opportunities and scurry into action
, adjusting your attitude and your habits to the new circumstances? Or are you likely to hem and haw, rail against the change and determine to linger until the situation normalizes - that is changes back? Well, whether considering the economy, your career or your personal life, only one thing is guaranteed: change. Addressing change positively, as Spencer Johnson urges in "Who Moved My Cheese?" is key to a successful life.
Through the characters of Sniff and Scurry, Hem and Haw we uncover aspects of ourselves and traits common to all people. When facing change one can be proactive to the point of anticipation. One can meet life head on as it comes or even drive change. Or, as is more often the case, one can deny change, whine and complain and seek to fix blame. Comfortable with the known, we often resist taking action to the point of paralysis. In the end the outcome is the same: either we move or we are frozen in fear, ending up a relic clinging tightly to the way things were.
Spencer's pithy discourse, a parable offered at a reunion of high school classmates, flows from the unfettered enthusiasm, some might say naivet, of youth to the more tempered realism of experience. Life hasn't necessarily been the thrilling adventure these friends once anticipated. Change has been constant and for many difficult and troubling. One of the friends shares a story of finding lost cheese to illustrate how he has come to view change.
Sniff and Scurry, two mice, live in a maze along with Hem and Haw, two amiable little people. For some time all four live contentedly near a cheese station providing for their every need. Gradually, however, the cheese at that station disappears. Sniff and Scurry don't bother to ponder why or weigh the long term implications of the lack of cheese, they jump into action, scampering out into the maze in search of new cheese. Hem and Haw, however, being people, are taken by surprise at the loss of cheese. To them the change was abrupt and unmerited. Their response is to complain and seek a culprit for the heinous wrongdoing.
Sniff and Scurry don't have an easy time navigating the maze. They travel to and fro, running down dead-ends, sniffing out scant leads, but with time, persistence and determination, Sniff and Scurry locate a new cheese station - one with more cheese than the first. Again content, they settle into new circumstances.
Hem and Haw on the other hand waste away, waiting for cheese to reappear. Eventually Haw realizes waiting is futile. He musters up some courage and ventures out into the maze. Haw is nourished by errant scraps of cheese he finds as he searches. After a time, he embraces a newfound enthusiasm exploring. He returns to Hem again and again to try to convince him to join the adventure. Hem will have no part of it. He knows his cheese station and he knows he has been wronged. Hem is determined to wait until the bitter end, if need be, for cheese to return.
Haw explores new branches of the maze in a journey of self discovery. As a guide and as a means of motivation he etches on the wall insights he gains along the way: 'If you don't change, you can become extinct.' 'Movement in a new direction helps you find new cheese.' 'When you move beyond your fear you feel free.' 'The quicker you let go of the old, the sooner you find the new.' 'It is safer to search than remain without.'
Haw eventually meets up with Sniff and Scurry in the new treasure trove of cheese. Having left a roadmap of sorts Haw hopes Hem might be able to overcome his fears and venture out to one day find new cheese.
Sniff and Scurry had reacted by instinct and adapted immediately. Haw stewed over the change until he recognized his choice: act or perish. Haw moved and by doing so discovered profound truths about himself and new cheese. Hem resisted with everything he had. The classmates realize that it is not change, but rather how one deals with change that matters.
Every aspect of the reality we call life is dynamic, in motion - changing. You must move forward - there is no other way to go. Don't waste life resisting and regretting change. Strap on your running shoes like Sniff and Scurry and Hem. Venture forth - amazing things await."
Copyright (c) 2011 Scott F Paradis
by: Scott F Paradis
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