This story has reentered my life at such a perfect time. It put many thoughts into perspective and created a more comfortable transition for me during this pivotal crossroads in my life. I want to share it. It might affect you just the same.
Who Moved My Cheese: A More Detailed Summary...
Who Moved My Cheese is a fable about four characters who live in a maze and search for their own special kind of cheese. The characters, the maze, and the cheese are all metaphors that paint a message for our lives.
The Characters:
The characters in Who Moved My Cheese are two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people, Hem and Haw. These characters represent different parts of us all; both the simple and complex. The two mice are simple and instinctual. The two little people are complex and emotional.
The Mice:
Sniff- anticipates and “sniffs out” change early
Scurry- adapts and scurries into action
The Little People:
Hem- fears change and resists it
Haw- adapts after time to see change as a positive
The Maze:
The maze represents where you look for whatever it is that your want. It’s where you spend your time looking for the things that make you happy. The maze can be your home, office, community, etc.
The Cheese:
The cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in your life, whether it is a good relationship, health, a good job, a nice home, etc.
The Story:
Two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people, Hem and Haw, lived in a maze. Every morning they would put their jogging suits and running shoes on and scurry over to Cheese Station C, where they each found their own kind of cheese.
Sniff and Scurry would keep their running shoes tied around their necks so they could put them on fast and head over to their cheese. Hem and Haw would do the same, but after some time they stopped wearing the shoes around their necks and even put them away. They would get to Cheese Station C later and later everyday and took their cheese for granted.
Haw would write his thoughts on the wall, and wrote “having cheese makes you happy.”
One day, the cheese in Cheese Station C was gone. Sniff and Scurry were not surprised by this. They had noticed the cheese supply dwindling for some time. Being simple creatures of habit and instinct, they wasted no time pondering the complexity of this loss and ran off to find more cheese.
The situation had changed, so Sniff and Scurry changed with it.
Hem and Haw on the other hand were in shock when they reached the empty Cheese Station. They felt entitled to their cheese there and were in denial about the fact that it was gone.
Day after day, they returned to Cheese Station C, only to find it in the same condition as it was previously in—empty. Hem then repeatedly yells, “Who moved my cheese?”
At this point Haw comes to the realization that the more important cheese is to you, the more you want to hold onto it.
Haw get the idea to leave Cheese Station C and go out to find more cheese. However, he finds himself listening to the fearful and resisting Hem and becomes afraid to go out to find new cheese. He imagines the worst, and these thoughts force him to stay in Cheese Station C and hope that his cheese will magically appear.
Hem and Haw follow the same pattern for days until Haw reaches a breakthrough. He realizes that they cannot keep doing the same things over and over and wonder why thing do not change. He then says, “If we don’t change we could become extinct,” and asks himself, “What would I do if I had no fear?”
Haw then gets up his courage and jogs into the unknown to find new cheese.
At first, he feels lost, but soon finds his way and writes on the wall:
Smell the cheese often so you know when it’s getting old.
He continues on his path and comes to find that he feels much better, even though he still has not found any new cheese. He says to himself that the act of moving beyond your fears makes you feel free and that imaging himself finding new cheese before he finds it leads him to new cheese.
At this point Haw comes upon a different cheese station that is almost completely empty. He realizes the error of his ways in the fact that he waited around so long in Cheese Station C, and says to himself, “If I’d moved on sooner, I might have found new cheese.”
He then picks up what cheese is left and heads back to find Hem at Cheese Station C to tell Hem of his adventures. Hem looks terrible and is starving, but is still in denial and resistant to change. Haw offers some of the little amount of cheese he found and Hem denies it saying, “I want my own cheese back,” and “I’m sure if I wait long enough things will be like they were.”
Haw cannot convince Hem to leave the station and find new cheese, so he heads out by himself once again, while fear, comfort, and denial hem Hem in.
At this point, Haw comes to another profound realization about change:
If I do things differently, things will get better.
He begins to truly see that change is not a bad thing and that it can and will be positive for him. He internalizes this with the notion, “when you change what you believe, you change what you do.” He lets go of the past and finds a way of adapting to find new cheese.
Haw then finally finds what he had been looking for—new cheese. He finds Sniff and Scurry as well as this new cheese at Cheese Station N. The two mice had been enjoying new cheese for some time because they had grown fat.
Now that Haw had found his new cheese, he applied the lessons he’d learned along the way to ensure himself against being in the same situation as before.
Everyday, he inspects Cheese Station N to check the condition of his cheese. He explores new areas of the maze, because he knows it is far safer to be aware of his real choices than to isolate himself in his comfort zone.
One day, Haw hears noise in the maze and hopes it’s his friend Hem.
Key Concepts to Take from Who Moved My Cheese
■Move to the new cheese and enjoy it.
■Change happens. They keep moving the cheese.
■Anticipate change. Smell the cheese often so you know when it’s getting old.
■Adapt to change quickly. The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you can enjoy new cheese.
■Nothing gets better until you change ■Enjoy change. Relish the adventure and enjoy the taste of new cheese.
■Be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again.
■They keep moving the cheese.
Conclusions
The four characters in story represent parts of all of us. In this story, the “simple” mice were able to enjoy their cheese right away, with hardly any lapse in time from when the cheese disappeared in Station C to when they found their new cheese.
They anticipated the change because of their observation that the cheese was getting low. They acted quickly and took action to get their new cheese, while Hem and Haw were drawn to inaction and paralysis of analysis.
Taking Action
We’ve all been there. How many times in your life have you been held back by this “paralysis of analysis?” When change comes, we as humans, tend to overanalyze the situation which makes us inactive, when what we should be doing is taking action that can put the change to our benefit.
People that act like Sniff and Scurry tend to handle change the best and are able to succeed and get ahead when change comes their way. Many times, these people are the leaders of industry, the risk takers, and the ones that succeed.
However, most people are like Hem and Haw—crippled by inaction, denial, and fear of leaving their comfort zone. Haw makes some profound discoveries in the story. He knows that if he would have just moved sooner and adapt to the change in a faster way, he would have been enjoying his cheese much sooner and possibly not missed out on the cheese from the near empty cheese station he found.
You can sit around like Hem and hope the cheese will be delivered to you, or you can take action and get that cheese.
Setting Goals
Another profound truth of this parable is found when Haw says, “Imagining finding cheese before I find it leads me to new cheese.” This is very true for accomplishing anything worthwhile in life. If you set goals and focus on them, they will lead you to accomplishing those goals.
Overcoming Fear and Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
Haw ultimately gets his new cheese because he was able to overcome his fear and get out of his comfort zone. He finds that just by getting out of Station C and trying to find new cheese, he immediately feels better, even though he hadn’t yet found new cheese.
He realizes that the fear that he let build up in his mind about his situation is nowhere near as bad as his situation actually is.
He also comes to the realization that it is better to get an honest assessment of his situation than to live in denial.
How many times have you allowed your situation to worsen, simply because of fear of knowing exactly what your situation was? How many times have you been set back by this, when you could have easily rectified your situation if you simply knew what position you were in?
This is a natural process for people. People don’t open their mail for fear of looking at past-due bills. They don’t check their bank accounts for fear of knowing exactly what their situation is.
Many times, these situations can be fixed easily. In the case of late bills, you could simply call and ask for an extension. Many times, it is granted.
Even if you aren’t able to fix the situation entirely, is it not better to know precisely where you stand? Of course it is! Besides that, what is the worst that can happen by acknowledging your situation and at least trying to fix it? You’ll certainly be no worse off, and many times you can improve the situation.
Enjoying Change
Most people are opposed to change. Like Hem and Haw, they have a deep-seated and many times illogical fear and resentment toward change. However, that attitude simply does not help at all in life.
Many people automatically think of change as a negative. The fact of the matter is change can be and often is positive. Throughout history, society has changed and progressed. We have made progress. If you sit and honestly think of all the changes in your life and in the world, can you sincerely say that it all has been for the worse? Of course not.
Admitting to yourself that change can be positive is the first step toward prospering during changing times. The moment Haw began thinking of change as something that can be positive, he immediately felt better.
Stopping yourself from automatically thinking of change as a negative and knowing it can be positive is also the first step toward enjoying change.
Change Happens- Enjoy It
Change happens. The sooner you accept it the sooner you can move on and thrive because of it. Like the saying goes, “the only thing that’s constant is change.” Since change is going to happen no matter what, and since it is a fact that not all change is negative and can actually be positive, if you let it, you might as well enjoy change.
If you don’t at least see that change can be positive and enjoy it when it happens, you are dooming yourself to a life of sorrow. Change happens—you might as well enjoy it.
Sniff and Scurry were able to enjoy change because they were able to see it coming and they adapted quickly to it. Haw delayed his enjoyment of change because of his denial and fear of leaving his comfort zone, but he was able to enjoy change in the end because he adapted to the changes and realized that change can be positive. He learned from his experiences and ended up much better off because of it.
You have a choice in life. You can anticipate and be alert to change, like Sniff. You can adapt to change quickly and take action like Scurry. You can also be like Haw, who eventually saw the error in his ways of being fearful, indecisive, and in denial and eventually adapted and changed his outlook.
It is preferable to act like the mice, who are ready for change and adapt quickly to it. However, many times our situations are complicated and we must access the situation and adapt like Haw did. As long as you are able to do this quickly, you can thrive and succeed in changing times.
On the other hand, acting like Hem can and will be a path toward destruction. People who act like Hem did eventually have two options. They can convert themselves to “Haws” and realize the futility of being in denial and afraid of change and getting out of their comfort zone, or they can become “extinct.”
