Who moved my cheese? | An amazing way to deal with change in your work and your life — Dr Spencer Johnson

In 2004, Amazon announced that “Who Moved my Cheese?” is their #1 Bestseller of all time. I’m an aggressive reader and read most of the bestsellers and classics. A great many people recommended this book to me. I read the book when I was 26. I Read it twice, listened to the audiobook several times. It is my top 5 favorite books of all time. Even now if I need a little motivation I will listen to the audio version of this book.

The story begins with four friends getting together for a school reunion. For many reasons, life turns out different for each of them. Everyone struggles to cope with change and one member in the group share a story that was shared with him in the office and how it changed his attitude towards change. I believe the initial story was written to explain the moral of the inside story in detail.

The author used the cheese as a metaphor for “What you want in life?”. Some may want a luxurious villa with a swimming pool and others may want a good relationship. The inside story revolves around 4 characters, 2 mice named Sniff and Scurry and 2 miniature men named Ha and Hem. Every day they run through the maze in search of Cheese. Sniff and Scurry use their rodent brain to find their way through the maze, whereas Ha and Hem use their complex brain with logic and emotion to navigate through the maze.

One fine day all the 4 characters reached cheese station C, where they found an abundant amount of cheese. They were very happy about it. After finding the cheese station C, Sniff and Scurry followed their routine every day but the miniature man became comfortable and complacent. They also fail to notice their cheese supply is getting smaller every day.

One morning when they woke and reach cheese station C they found no cheese. Sniff and scurry didn’t react, they put on their running shoes and started running through the maze, the situation changes so they changed. But when the miniature men found out they got emotional and started blaming the situation. They feel they are entitled to that cheese. They were spending time in cheeseless station C and refusing to change. On the other side, Sniff and Scurry were running through the maze and they found cheese station N where there is an even larger quantity of cheese. Ha try to convince Hem to get back on the maze, But Hem refuses to change. At one point Ha gets frustrated and leave Hem to search for cheese in the Maze. And while he was navigating his way through the maze he understood that his fear was paralyzing him before. He finds a little bit of cheese here and there and eventually reaches Cheese station N along with Sniff and Scurry.

The story tells us the beauty of change and how it can be a tool if used in the right way. Our attitude towards change plays a huge role in our happiness. And my favorite quote in the book is “The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese”. How does Ha convince himself to change? It is the best part. Read the book to know more!