3 Things I learnt from “Who Moved My Cheese?”

Day 5 / 365

At about a 100 Pages in length, Who Moved My Cheese is small as compared to most self-help books out there. Yet there are many compelling lessons to be learned from the book.

The main focus of the book are 4 characters — 2 mice Sniff and Scurry and 2 little people Hem and Haw. They live in a maze which they roam about in search for cheese. The book gives us a comparison of how their lives changes when the come across a huge station filled with cheese, and how they react one day when it disappears.

I chose this as the first book I read in 2019, here are 3 things I learnt from it

Accept that change is inevitable

We have all heard the saying that change is the only thing that’s constant. But most of us are not that great with dealing with change. We get used to the comforts of our lives that we start feeling entitled to it. Hem and Haw found it hard to accept the fact that their cheese was gone. They stayed at the station hoping for the cheese to come back again. They didn’t want to leave the comfort of the station and go back to roaming around the maze again. It seems illogical, but its the same way most of us respond to change as well. Instead of dwelling on who moved our cheese, we should move with the cheese.

Always anticipate change and prepare for it

As haw says in the book-

Smell the cheese often so you know when it’s getting old

The little people were so blinded by luxuries of the huge cheese station, that they didn’t notice it rotting and getting lesser and lesser. Thus they were dumbfounded when it disappeared. The mice on the other hand knew this, as they inspected the cheese each day, and always had their shoes ready in case they need to go looking for cheese some place else.

We should stay alert of changes in our life, and should never get too comfortable with how things are going. Expect big changes to happen in your life and be ready to adapt to them

Take control of your life

When haw decided to leave hem at the station and go looking for cheese, his situation didn’t improve right away. If anything it got worse. He was still starving, but now he was tired and alone as well. But this to him felt much better than staying helpless at the station. He was taking control of the situation, rather than surrendering to it and letting things happen to him.

This is applicable to the problems we face as well. Of course it’s easy to just give up, and let the situation over power you. But you will feel much better about yourself if you muster up the courage to do something about it.

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Up next — Visualising a Maths Problem