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Who Moved My Cheese?
An Amazing Way to Deal With Change In Your Work & In Your Life
DR SPENCER JOHNSON
“Cheese” – a metaphor for what we want to have in life, whether it is a
job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition,
spiritual peace, or even an activity like jogging or golf.
Each of us has our own idea of what Cheese is, and we pursue it because
we believe it makes us happy. If we get it, we often become attached to
it. And if we lose it, or it’s taken away, it can be traumatic.
ONCE, long ago, there lived 4 little characters who ran through a maze
looking for cheese to nourish them & make them happy.
Two were mice named “Sniff” & “Scurry” and two were little people named
“Hem” & “Haw”.
Every morning, the mice & the little people dressed in their running
gear & headed over to Cheese Station C where they found their own kind
of cheese. It was a large store of Cheese that Hem & Haw eventually
moved their homes to be closer to it & built a social life around it.
To make themselves feel more at home, Hem & Haw decorated the walls with
sayings. One read: "Having Cheese Makes you Happy".
Having Cheese Makes You Happy
One morning, Sniff & Scurry arrived at Cheese Station C & discovered
there was no cheese.
They weren’t surprised. Since they had noticed the supply of cheese had
been getting smaller every day, they were prepared for the inevitable &
knew instinctively what to do. They were quickly off in search of New
Cheese.
Later that same day, Hem & Haw arrived. “What! No Cheese? Who moved my
Cheese? It’s not fair!”, Hem yelled. They went home that night hungry &
discouraged. But before they left, Haw wrote on the wall:
The More Important Your Cheese is To You, The More You Want To Hold Onto
It.
The next day Hem & Haw left their homes, & returned to Cheese Station C.
But situation hadn’t changed. Haw asked, “Where are Sniff & Scurry? Do
you think they know something we don’t?” Hem scoffed, “What would they
know? They’re just simple mice. They just respond to what happens. We’re
little people. We’re smarter.”
Haw suggested, “Maybe we should stop analyzing the situation so much and
just get going & find some New Cheese.
Haw decided to leave Cheese Station C while Hem was more comfortable
staying in the cheeseless Station C. Haw announced, “It’s MAZE time!”
and wrote:
If You Do Not Change,
You Can Become Extinct
Who Moved My Cheese?
Meanwhile, Sniff & Scurry went farther into the maze until they found
Cheese Station N. They found what they had been looking for: a great
supply of New Cheese. It was the biggest store of cheese the mice had
ever seen.
Haw on the other hand become more anxious & wondered if he really wanted
to go out into the Maze. He wrote a saying on the wall ahead of him &
stared at it for some time:
What Would You Do
If You Weren’t Afraid?
Haw now realized that the change probably would not have taken him by
surprise if he had been watching what was happening all along and if he
had anticipated change. He stopped for a rest & wrote on the wall of the
Maze:
Smell The Cheese Often
So You Know
When It Is Getting Old.
Haw wondered if Hem had moved on, or if he was still paralyzed by his
own fears. Then, Haw remembered the times when he had felt his best in
the Maze. It was when he was moving along. He wrote:
Movement In A New Direction Helps You Find
New Cheese.
As Haw started running down the dark corridor, he began to smile. Haw
didn’t realize it yet, but he was discovering what nourished his soul.
He was letting go & trusting what lay ahead for him, even though he did
not know exactly what it was.
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To his surprise, Haw started to enjoy himself more & more. He stopped to
write again on the wall:
When You Move Beyond Your Fear,
You Feel Free.
Who Moved My Cheese?
To make things even better, Haw started to paint a picture in his mind
again. He saw himself in great realistic detail, sitting in the middle
of a pile of all his favorite cheeses-from Cheddar to Brie! He saw
himself eating the many cheeses he liked, & he enjoyed what he saw.
The more clearly he saw the image of himself enjoying New Cheese, the
more real & believable it became. He wrote:
Imagining Myself
Enjoying New Cheese,
Even Before I Find It,
Leads Me To It.
Haw wondered why he had always thought that a change would lead to
something worse. Now he realized that change could lead to something
better.
Then he raced through the Maze with greater strength & agility. Until he
found bits of New Cheese. He entered the Cheese Station but it was
empty. Someone had already been there.
He stopped & wrote on the wall:
The Quicker You
Let Go Of Old Cheese,
The Sooner
you Find New Cheese.
Haw made his way back to Cheese Station C to offer Hem bits of New
Cheese but was turned down. Hem wanted his own Cheese back. Haw just
shook his head in disappointment but this does not stop him from finding
New Cheese. He smiled as he realized:
It Is Safer
To Search In The Maze
Than Remain
In The Cheeseless Situation.
Haw realized again, that what you are afraid of is never as bad as what
you imagine. The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the
situation that actually exists.
He realizes it was natural for change to continually occur, whether you
expect it or not. Change could surprise you only if you didn’t expect it
& weren’t looking for it.
When he realized he had changed his beliefs, he paused to write on the
wall:
Old Beliefs
Do Not Lead You To
New Cheese.
Who Moved My Cheese?
Haw now realized that his new beliefs were encouraging him to behave in
a new way. He was behaving differently from the way he had when he had
kept returning to the same cheeseless station.
It all depends on what you choose to believe. He wrote on the wall:
When You See That You Can Find And Enjoy New Cheese, You Change Course.
Haw just hoped he was heading in the right direction. He thought about
the possibility that Hem would read The Handwriting On The Wall & find
his way.
He wrote on the wall what he had been thinking about for some time:
Noticing Small Changes Early Helps You Adapt To The Bigger Changes That
Are To Come.
He continued on through the Maze with greater strength & speed. He
proceeded along a corridor that was new to him, rounded a corner, &
found New Cheese at Cheese Station N where he saw the greatest supply of
Cheese he had ever seen.Sniff & Scurry welcomed him.
“Hooray for Change!”
Haw wrote down a summary of what he had learned on the largest wall of
Cheese Station N & smiled as he looked at what he had learned:
THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL
?Change Happens
?Anticipate Change
?Monitor Change
?Adapt To Change Quickly
Change
?Enjoy Change !
?Be Ready To Change Quickly & Enjoy It Again.
Move With The Cheese &
Enjoy It !
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