Who Moved My Cheese?
By Spencer Johnson, M.D.
As a Coach I work with my clients to help them recognize and, if appropriate, shift their beliefs. When they shift beliefs and take action they can then change behaviour. This book looks at various beliefs and reactions to change.
In this book Spencer Johnson uses a very simple story of two mice named "Sniff" and "Scurry" and two little people who were as small as mice named "Hem" and "Haw". Each day the characters spent time in the maze looking for their own special cheese.
The mice, Sniff and Scurry, possessing only simple rodent brains, but good instincts, searched for the hard nibbling cheese they liked, as mice often do.
The two little people, Hem and Haw, used their brains, filled with many beliefs and emotions, to search for a very different kind of Cheese with a capital "C" which they believed would make them feel happy and successful.
You have to read the story, but here is some of the "Handwriting on the Wall."
- Change Happens. They keep moving the cheese.
- Anticipate Change. Get ready for the cheese to move.
- Monitor Change. Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old.
- Adapt to Change Quickly. The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you can enjoy the new cheese.
- Change. Move with the cheese
- Enjoy Change. Savour the adventure and taste the new cheese.
- Be Ready to Quickly Change Again and Again. They keep moving the cheese.
Here are some more gems (or great pieces of cheese) from the book.
- If you do not change, you can become extinct.
- What would you do if you were not afraid?
- When you move beyond fear, you feel free.
- Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese.
