Who moved my cheese: This book by Spencer Johnson was one of the earliest books I read in the management/self help genre. This article is a short review of the top highlights from this book. More than a review this article is about the key takeaways from the theme of this book. The book is all about change. Whenever we’re at crossroads or maybe even before that, change comes knocking at our doors.
The main question to ask is – how soon can we react to this change? In the book, Spencer Johnson uses a simple analogy about a mice that decides to hunt vs the one who waits. Is it similar to some of our circumstances in life? Maybe we’re stuck in a bad job or a toxic relationship. Change is hard, but is also a necessity! The book makes you think about your tipping point and what makes you change.
Who Moved my cheese – Highlights and Meaning
The highlights for me were around taking ownership for change. Remember, only you can make the change or else you’ll be forced by the circumstances. In this section I will highlight a few salient messages from who moved my cheese.
I like it here. It’s comfortable, it’s what I know. Besides it’s dangerous out there:
The fear of unknown is real! The comfort zone might give us a false sense of hope. It can create a false belief that things are ok and we keep stretching by lowering our standards. The worst thing to do is lie to ourselves rather than being brutally honest. If we don’t set our own standards, then we will be forced to make a choice that we don’t like.
Things will get better with time:
Procrastination is ok sometimes, but it is hurtful when it creates a sense of false hope. The belief that things will get better with time creates a narrative that might be false. Sure, it can give some solace to procrastinate and also make some problems tolerable. Things don’t get better with time, we have to make them better.
Dealing with unknowns
Dealing with unknowns is hard. In this book who moved my cheese, it is quite clear that the mice are unaware of what lies on the other horizon. But the only way to know is by trying and experimenting. It comes back to our ability to create the habit of change. Certainty is comfortable, but it can’t be satisfying. Status quo is great because it gives us certainty but if it happens at the cost of compromising our values, then we it is upto us to rush for change isn’t it?
You can find the full review of who moved my cheese here.
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer JohnsonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Short, Crisp and a very effective way of conveying a message. It conveys a great message about taking ownership of change in a simple story manner. The moral is quite simple and straightforward. It is a quick read, you might be able to finish the book in a couple of hours
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In this fast-paced world we need to adapt ourselves to change.For, mountains will never come to Mohamed.
Very rightly stated Easwar. I think the faster we are to accept that it is time to change, the faster we move to create one and make a difference. I guess the whole point comes to the moment of action and the faster we hit that, the faster we get to solving most challenges :)
Thank you for sharing the viewpoint Easwar, look forward to sharing more :)
Cheers,
V
That a pretty nice writeup and One thing I can say on Change-It is the only thing Constant… :-)
Thank you Harsha :) .. I totally agree to that statement, that is the one thing which stays all along :)