Dr. Sumathi Sangaran - Who Moved My Cheese?: Essay on the ability to deal with change

The interesting cheese story told in a book written by Dr. Spencer was amazing, it has no direct references to cheese or any of that kind to theories, the name of his book is Who Moved The Cheese. In this book it depicts a story where there are four imaginary characters mentioned. There are two mice, one named Sniff and the other is Scurry and there are also these two little people, small in size but acts like people their names are Hem and Haw. Their characters are simplified in the table below.

They live in a maze looking for their own special cheese for living. In the story, t hese four characters go daily to eat cheese at a place called Cheese Station C, and this they do it everyday without fail. Over a period of time, gradually the little people (Hem and Haw) started slacking in punctuality and often reach the destination in a complacent mode. Their confident level was high; assuming that the cheese will

forever be there and there is no need to worry about it. So why race and hurry to eat it as it has always been there. Till one day there was a moment when they went to the usual place to eat the cheese and sadly there was no more cheese left in there. This situation they did not even notice on what was happening, meaning not realising the cheese getting lesser and lesser day by day. Hem and Haw had lots of plans in place based on the cheese, they could not accept the fact that it is no longer there and kept looking around the Cheese less Station C areas, shouting Who Moved My Cheese! They wasted time denying the change that has already taken place. All kinds of the negative perception, thoughts and words clouded their mind.

On the other side of the story, Sniff and Scurry was consistent and continued their normal routine. They were not surprised when one day they discovered that there was no more cheese left because they had noticed the amount getting smaller day by day. As things have changed (no more cheese), they searched elsewhere for new cheese and finally found Cheese Station N.

In this story Haw was positive thinking person as opposed to Hem. He wanted to move on and search for new cheese elsewhere with Hem but Hem was adamant and reluctant to move out from his comfort zone, i.e out of his familiar territory. Without being afraid, he has to leave the stubborn headed Hem behind as he gambled his life in the search of new cheese since it is better to be late than never. He kept moving and each wall he bumped into he would write some positive words thinking of Hem who he believed would be trailing behind him and these words

would be an indicator that Haw has gone past these areas. Of course some words were motivational and food for thought. Sharing below are some examples of it:

Imagining yourself enjoying your new cheese leads you to it.

When you stop being afraid you feel good,

Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese,

Noticing small changes early helps you to adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.

Haws journey was challenging but he kept on going because along the new path he found some cheese to eat, and these were only enough to fill his stomach which he is not confident for future needs. Haw kept on visualizing, imagining, feeling and painting pictures about finding cheese, smelling and eating it, savouring its flavour. Finally, due to his determination and positive attitude he found Cheese Station N with lots of cheese which was tastier and in there he also met the other two friends, Sniff and Scurry. To Haw, quote Johnson (2007) change had turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it led him to find better cheese. If he were to have stayed back with Hem, he probably might have died of hunger or starvation. His positive attitude to change and move out of the comfort zone has rewarded him with tastier and

lots of cheese for him to survive. The ending of this story is based on the readers perception because it goes like this:

Haw heard what he thought was the sound of movement out in the Maze. The noise grew louder, he realised that someone was coming. Could it be that Hem wasarriving? The answer could have been a YES or a NO. If it was Hem, surely Haw will be overjoyed to see him. If NO, Haw will be saddened and the possibility is it could be someone else passing along that way.