An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life - by Dr. Spencer Johnson
A Gathering
Some old friends gathered for a class reunion. They had changes in their lives since they met each other last time. So one them told the story called “Who moved my Cheese?”
The Story
Four little characters:
Two littlepeople -> Hem and Haw
Two mice -> Sniff and Scurry
They everyday run around the maze to find their own speacial cheese.
- Two mice use a simple method “trial-and-error”: they run down one corridor and if it proved empty, they turn and run down another.
They all found their cheese at Cheese Station C.
• When the two mice found they hang their running shoes nearby.(in case they might need them again)
• But when the two littlepeple found their cheese, they thought it last forever, so they throw away their shoes (they think they won’t need them.)
Hem and Haw didn’t notice that the cheese was becoming less and less every time they ate it. So one day when they came to the Cheese Station C, there was no cheese left.
The same happened with Sniff and Scurry. When they arrived at the station, they couldn’t see any cheese there.
Then they quickly got their running shoes back and started looking for a “New Cheese”
But the two littlepeople, Hem and Haw, they got shocked and they got angry, Hem yelled: “Who moved our cheese?”
They kept coming back to Station C everyday to see that if something changed and somebody put back their Old Cheese. They started blaming each other. They didn’t take any action to start searching the New Cheese, because they wanted their Old Cheese back.
- The more important your Cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it
Meanwhile, the two mice found their New Cheese at Cheese Station N.
Haw wanted to stop crying, blaming and making excuses for not letting the Old Cheese go. But Hem didn’t want to change.
But Haw wanted to go and search for the New Cheese. He said: “Sometimes, things change and they are never the same again. This looks like one of those times. That’s Life! Life moves on. And so should we”.
- If you don’t change, you can become extinct.
Hem was afraid of going out and not finding a new cheese. But Haw was about to change his way of thinking:
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**What would you do if you weren’t a-
afraid? -
Smell the Cheese often, so you know when it is getting old. monitor_change
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Movement in a new direction helps you find New Cheese.
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**When you move beyond your Fear, You feel free
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Imagining myself enjoying New cheese even before I find it, Leads me to it.
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The quicker you let go of Old Cheese, The sooner you find New Cheese adapt
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Old beliefs do not lead you to New Cheese!
Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come!
The fastest way to change is to Laugh at your own folly - then you can let go and quickly move on.
Nothing gets better until You Change!
A Discussion
In business, Old Cheese might be the way you do your busines, your service or your product. Change might occur
In personal life, Old cheese might be your relationship. Perhaps it is just old behavior that keeps causing our bad relationship.
New Cheese is a new relationship with the same person
- Repeating the same behavior will just get you the same results!
Instead of changing jobs, maybe I should be one of the people helping my company change.
People changed because no one wants to look like Hem.
Cheese - being a metaphor for what we want to have in our life, whether it is a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition…
Maze - represents where you spend time looking for what you want. It can be the organization you work in, the community you live in, or the relationships you have in your life.