WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? BY SPENCER JOHNSON (Book Review)
Who moved my cheese? An amazing way to deal with all the changes in your work and your life was published on 8th September 1998. The genre of the book is a fictional, self-help book. It serves as a motivational book for practical life and work. The author has beautifully depicted the reactions of different people to different life situations and how using our skills we can find solutions to these problems and attain inner peace, happiness, and success.
It’s all about how we deal and react to the changes in our life. Because “change” is a profound truth that no one can deny.
Story Overview
The story revolves around four characters and their reaction to the unexpected change of being deprived of cheese, which they loved so much.
4 characters are: sniff and scurry the two little mice. Hem and haw humans but the size of mice. They all live in a maze. Life is going well because all four of them have found a huge supply of cheese at the cheese station. hem and haw had even moved their homes close to the cheese station so that it is easy for them to go and fill themselves.
With the passage of time hem and haw became arrogant. They keep bragging about the amount of cheese they have in front of their friends. Hem and haw had become very lazy by the days and assumed the cheese will stay there forever. Hence, They woke up late, dress late, and went late to the cheese station after all they knew where the cheese was. Sniff and scurry did not change their routines. They woke up early in the morning and went to the cheese station and they sniffed and inspected the area. Soon they sensed that the supply of cheese was getting less day by day and the situation at the cheese station was changing. They prepared themselves for the changes that were about to occur. Whereas hem and haw were blind in their arrogance and did not see the upcoming threat.
One morning when they went to the cheese station there was no cheese at all. They got frustrated and angry by the situation. They ranted, raid, shouted and cried. Because considered themselves as victims of some kind of robbery and theft. Whereas sniff and scurry quickly accepted the loss and went in the search for more cheese in the maze. Johnson’s message here is that we should learn to look for the changes occurring in our life from the very start so we don’t have to get surprised at the end. To make himself believe in the situation haw wrote on the wall of the maze
“ If you do not change, you become extinct.”
The life lesson here is that life moves on and so was haw ready to move on. The hem was reluctant to the change and did not agree to go with haw in search of new cheese and preferred waiting at the cheese station for the cheese to arrive there someday. Haw found it difficult to adapt to the change but soon he learned that:
If you are ready to fight your fears it losses its horror and makes you free. Click To Tweet
While people like hem who continuously seek security and are not ready to step out of their comfort zones and do not adapt to the changes have to suffer and lose in the practical field of their life.
Haw writes on the wall of the maze “ smell cheese often so you know when it is getting old.” Haw continues his search for new cheese even though he faces so many difficulties and challenges yet he does not lose hope. And one day he finds out a pile of tons of cheese, which he had never seen in his life.
Final word:
Spencer has beautifully introduced his readers to how to cope up with changes in life positively. It is a short fiction book. It will almost take an hour to read if you are a beginner. But it will leave a long-lasting effect on you. Because it has beautiful life lessons, which you can imply in, your life and get benefits from it.
Now, I would love to hear from you if you have any big cheese in your life and think that it will last forever?
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