Who moved my cheese? essay sample

Who Moved My Cheese? Is a good book to read for businessmen and those people who strive hard for success and are looking for precious advices when it comes to decision making. This book is written by Psychologist Dr. Spencer Johnson which according to him came up with this book to develop self help books that will enlighten readers. The book in general is about success and people. The cheese in the book symbolizes success and the 2 mice and 2 little people symbolizes different people. The readers can see themselves from the characters who mirrors their personality when it comes to decision making and learning about the idea of success.

Looking deeper, we can also say that cheese becomes a metaphor for what  a person really wants for his or her life. May it be a good job, money, loving relationship or a valuable spiritual peace of mind. Cheese is what really will make us happy and when there are certain circumstances that comes along our way that are cheese in life will be put into something critical, be deal with change with different ways since we are different people with different point of views. The four characters in this parable represents parts of one’s personality whenever we are dealing and confronting with change.

There are certain Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw in our everyday lives. Struggling and dealing with the complicated maze of this world. Those 2 mice and 2 little men  are us and the maze is the place that we live in. Like people who are different from each other, each of them also has different methods of finding cheese, more particularly their special type of cheese. Like most of us who wake up everyday and we think that we are just repeating what we did yesterday, we are shocked whenever sudden change occurs. This is where the dilemma comes in. How we are going to handle those changes and what decision will best help us in handling those scenarios of sudden change. And who among the characters really fits our personality. I just found mine.

Lets characterize them one by one: Sniff is simple minded and uncomplicated, he anticipates changes early by sniffing it which is also his way in finding cheese everyday. Scurry is also like Sniff, simple minded and uncomplicated, he quickly scurries into action and adapt to the environment which in fact made him bump into walls when finding cheese on dark places.

As they continue their everyday quest in finding cheese, when they found out that their cheese supply is nearly out of hand, Sniff and Scurry were prepared for the inevitable and knew instinctively what to do. The 2 mice did not over analyze things and were not burdened by many complex beliefs. They just accepted the fact that their cheese supply is nearly out of hand and so they were quickly off in search of New Cheese. Their trial and error method works though sometimes this will put their lives at risk like scurry being bumped on walls.

On the other hand Hem and Haw are both full of complexities and they are complicated. But since the same scenario happened to hem and haw when they find out that their cheese is gone they find it hard to accept it and continuously hem and haw to the incident. Hem was yelling and complains that life is unfair for them since they worked hard for those cheese,  Hem denies the change that has happened with their cheese and Haw wants to ignore what he hears because  he didn’t want to deal with what was facing him so he just turned everything out. Haw easily give up and panicked when the cheese was moved. Haw had learned to adapt in time when he sees something better, as he observed from the 2 mice’s activity and this made him learn a very important lesson about change, productivity and activity.

I can say that my personality is more of  a Haw, where at times i tend to be at ease with what I already have. And i also make things complicated ones  change occurs. I sometimes want to ignore what is already happening but later on i began to realize and adapt in due time those better reasons why certain things had happen and change is really unavoidable in this world. Lessons on productivity and activity is also one key term for me. We have to move everyday and live like there’s no tomorrow.

I admire those people like Sniff and Scurry I for one know someone who is good on selling stuffs. She really earns a lot selling novelty items and takes opportunity going to places whenever she hears there are lots of buyers there. Trial and error method is also her way in dealing with business. Life is a gamble just like business, you bet and you either win or loose. What matters is you are courageous enough risking your cards and laying them down. She was never frighten of the bumps ahead and sudden changes that might affect her business.

Being like Hem is a big no no for me because i know some people like him who begins to become confident already with what they have and will not work anymore because they know that they have lots of money that will support their lifestyle and will maintain their kind of living. But then when sudden emergency occurs and bankruptcy happens in their business they began to disbelieve what had happen. Depression and anxiety occurs that makes them hard to recover from such bad experience instead of contemplating first on what has happened and provide reasons that may comfort their emotions and try to helpe ach other to move on, they are stuck from those bad experience and need other people first to boost them and encourage them to star a new life.

The challenge in this book is how willing people are to accept changes in their everyday lives.  Basically we always take things for granted and be confided with the stereotypical days of our lives. Are we going to be stuck like Hem, Haw, Sniff and Scurry rising up every morning outs on their jogging suits and running shoes leaves their homes and race around the maze looking for their favorite cheese? Don’t wait for someone to move your cheese first before you do something. You have to seek for wider horizons and greater possibilities. Plus of course the ability to decide optimistically and do things for the greater good of all.

There are many realizations and lessons that we can adopt from the book and apply in our lives. We should anticipate change and be ready to handle them. At the same time adaptation to these changes is really a must for us. We have to enjoy these changes because everything happens for a reason and these changes are constant.

There is nothing permanent in this world except change. We also have to find our pieces of cheese and value them. We have to take care of those cheese/possessions that we have because it might get lost with a blink of an eye. Of course cheese do expires so you also have to find a new cheese, when you move beyond your fear of loosing your old cheese, you feel free and enjoy having your new cheese. Notice small changes that happens earlier in your life so that you will be prepared when big ones came. Be ready when someone moves your cheese. For you’ll never know what will happen next until you learn how to decide properly. Having Cheese Makes You Happy

Reference:

Johnson. Spencer (2002) Who Moved My Cheese? Vermilion Publishing