It was a long train ride, where I had packed almost ten books; just in case there is a slight chance I would want to read; even though I hadn’t read in a few weeks, but I didn’t want to take any chances. On that day, I decided to give a self-help book a try “who moved my cheese? By Spencer Johnson”
Those self-help books always seemed like a great excuse, I read a book, and my flaws and pitfalls are magically fixed.
“Who moved my cheese?” is about one thing, change; quite frightening if you aren’t aware of what is to come next. The book is symbolic every step of the way, we have the mice, Scurry; to hurry, and Sniff; to inhale, there are two human beings, Hem and Haw; to be indecisive. They all live in a maze; life, and look for cheese; everything we want like a good job, a happy relationship, a peace of mind…etc.
They pair off to seek cheese, and one day they do find cheese in a corridor, ecstatic; the humans establish routines to return to that cheese, forgetting that this supply ought to end and staying within their comfort zone.
When they eventually reach the day in which the cheese is gone, the mice are accepting of this; they had noticed the supply lessening and have mentally prepared themselves to look for more cheese, the humans were, on the other hand, enraged. Hem demands “who moved my cheese?” and though Haw is upset as well, eventually he tries to persuade Hem that they need to find more cheese, but Hem is unmoving.
Sniff and Scurry find new cheese and enjoy it, while the humans feel the effect of lost cheese, Haw sees that it is pointless to wait and cry over missing cheese, but Hem is still afraid of getting out of his comfort zone.
Eventually, Haw sets on to find his own cheese, after writing a message for his partner on the maze’s wall “If you don’t change, you can become extinct”
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
He writes more and more messages for Hem and we conclude from Haw that:
Fear will continue to exist.
As Haw sets on his journey, he realizes that cheese doesn’t simply vanish, but it is constantly being eaten and therefore won’t exist at some point, eventually, our supply of cheese may be gone; we set off to find more, the cheese may grow old; we have to sniff and see, we may be running out of cheese; in which case we must be prepared for our new adventure in finding more.
Our nature as humans forces us to overthink, our mind and circumstances might make us believe that we will never find more cheese, or that the cheese won’t be the same quality as we once had.
There is a good chance of failure every step of the way, but no one has reached something by standing still. If we dwindle on that lost job opportunity or that failed marriage, if we don’t take the leap.
We will reach nothing.
