Recently I read the book, “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson and I want to share some mind-changing principles I learned about change and changing. I highly recommend it to anyone who is having a difficult time dealing with change in their work or in their life, as it teach some simple philosophies and easy strategies to manage and deal with change in your life.
Change is difficult for most people. They like what they have grown accustomed to and stick with what is “comfortable.” They know when they are being stretched beyond the limits of our “comfort zone” and they don’t like or want to go there. Some are pushed outside of their comfort zones by other people or circumstances, while there are others purposefully push themselves outside of their own comfort zone to grow and develop personally.
Most people are not sophisticated enough to personally plan and prepare for change, and they become stuck when their world around them is turned upside down and is no longer the same. They have not prepared for it and don’t know how to handle it when it comes. They become one of the four characters in “Who Moved My Cheese?” The two mice, Sniff and Scurry, sniff out change and scurry to move with it, while Hem and Haw, the two little people in the story, take ownership of the “cheese” and when it is lost or gone, they become lost too . . . until they decide to change.
The “cheese” is the story is anything or worth or value to an individual, and it is different for each one. For some it may be good health and well-being, for others it may be material possessions, lots of money or other status items. The cheese also might be your position, title or status. What do you do when it becomes lost? Lessons from “Who Moved My Cheese?” may have the answer. Here are a few of my favorites.
You won’t really understand these lessons until you have read the book, but here they are anyway.
The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese. New cheese if often better.
When the cheese moves, you either need to move with the cheese or find new cheese. Do not stay where there is no cheese.
It is safer to search the maze than remain in a cheeseless situation. 
When you move beyond your fear, you feel free.
When you change what you believe, you change what you do.
The fastest way to change is to laugh at your own folly–,
then you can let go and quickly move on.
And finally, NOTHING GETS BETTER UNTIL YOU CHANGE.
What must you change, you may ask?
It may be a belief about someone or something. It may be something you need to be doing but are not; or something you are doing but shouldn’t be. It may be as simple as having an attitude adjustment or changing a simple action. When you take time to think about, everyone can come up with something they really need to change. The philosophies in “Who Moved My Cheese?” will help you do it. It is a good short read and I recommend it to anyone who feels stuck and needs a change.
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