Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
What an inspiring book. The story revolved around four characters. Two were mice, named Sniff and Scurry. The other two were littlepeople, a race similar to humans but small like mice, named Hem and Haw. In the story, Cheese symbolized whatever is important to us: our careers, relationships, religion, etc. Everyday the four characters ate from the same huge pile of Cheese until it was eventually gone. Dr. Johnson wove a brilliant tale of what each character did in search of new Cheese in the Maze.
Today, Cheese for me represents my thoughts and patterns of behavior. The Maze would be my mind. I realize my old Cheese had become stale and moldy, and I am now on a continual search for more refined Cheese.
I feel the only way we can grow and evolve is to continually adapt to change. When the Cheese was first gone, Hem and Haw blamed everyone and everything external. That was me at one point in my life. But like Haw, I had to face my fear of change and go on a journey in search of new Cheese.
Hem, Unfortunately, never went to search for new Cheese. I notice there are many men around me that are just like Hem. They still blame. They do not want to take responsibility for anything. They have become comfortable at the place they are at in life, and do not want to admit that perhaps there was something wrong with the Cheese that they used to eat and still reminisce about. In other words, they do not want to do the difficult work in the Maze to search for new Cheese, but stay right where they are at, lost in the prison of their minds.
I am tired of being like Hem and thinking about my old Cheese. I much prefer searching for new Cheese that gives my life meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. There are days that I find no Cheese at all or only a small crumb. I am confident, though, that there will always be Cheese to find, I just have to continue on the journey.
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