Notes and Takeaways from Who Moved My Cheese?
When I read it: August 2021
Why I read it: My Mama recommended this book to me. I wish I had read it sooner. It's a short book about how to manage yourself through difficult life changes. It sold a million copies in the first 16 months and over 21 million copies five years later.
Go to the Amazon listing for the book or scroll down for my notes.
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My notes
About Spencer Johnson
Dr. Spencer Johnson was the author of thirteen New York Times bestsellers including Who Moved My Cheese? and The One Minute Manager.
About Ken Blanchard
Dr. Ken Blanchard has co-authored 60 books including the bestsellers Who Moved My Cheese? and The One Minute Manager. He is the co-founder and Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies.
About Who Moved My Cheese?
Dr. Spencer Johnson created the story of Who Moved My Cheese? to help him deal with a difficult change in his life. The story shows you how to approach a change situation seriously without taking yourself too seriously. Who Moved My Cheese? sold a million copies in the first 16 months and over 21 million copies in the next five years. In 2005, Amazon.com reported Who Moved My Cheese? as its top-selling book.
The Cheese and Maze Metaphors
The story takes place in a Maze where four imaginary characters look for Cheese.
The Cheese is a metaphor for what we want in life. It could be a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition, or anything else you desire.
The Maze represents where you spend time looking for what you want. It could be where you work, the community you live in, or the internet.
We each have our own idea of what Cheese is and we pursue it because we believe it makes us happy. Once we get our Cheese, we often become attached to it and we react emotionally if we lose it or have it taken away from us.
The four imaginary characters
In Who Moved My Cheese? four imaginary characters represent the simple and the complex parts of how people respond to change. There are two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two Littlepeople, Hem and Haw.
Sometimes we act like each of these characters. Sniff sniffs out change early. Scurry scurries into action when faced with change. Hem denies and resists change because he fears it will lead to something worse. Haw learns to adapt when he realizes change can lead to something better.
The two mice deal with change better because they keep things simple. But, the Littlepeople’s complex brains cause them to overthink the situations and react emotionally, which makes dealing with change difficult.
Three truths about change
Not all change is good or necessary, but there are three general truths about change.
First, change is scary. We resist it because we're afraid of the uncertainty and insecurity it brings.
Second, change is inevitable. It is natural and continuous. We should anticipate it, monitor it, and adapt to it quickly when it comes. If you do not change, you can become extinct. Change happens to all of us.
Third, change is exciting. Change is what makes life a meaningful adventure that we can enjoy. Change is often a blessing in disguise. Not only do you find a better situation. You also discover a better you. We should view change with optimism, seeing it as an opportunity to gain something new instead of losing something old.
You can't have an adventure without uncertainty
The future is uncertain. That's what makes it an adventure.
Comfort and security lead to rigidity
Comfort lulls you into forgetting how much fun the adventure of uncertainty is.
When we feel comfortable and secure, we establish routines around assumed certainty. We become possessive of the status quo, build our lives around it, and make it part of our identity.
Don't let familiar territory blind you to the gradual changes taking place every day. Don't feel entitled to the status quo.
Most change is predictable
When you reflect on change, you realize the signs were there all along for you to have seen it coming. You just didn't because you weren't anticipating it.
Sometimes fear is good, but most of the time it is not.
Some fear should be respected as it can keep you out of real danger. But most fears are irrational and keep you from changing when you need to.
Your fear holds you captive.
Sometimes you're so afraid of not being able to handle change, you never start changing.
Fearful beliefs slow you down.
You feel your best when you're in motion.
Movement in a new direction frees you from fear. When you stop being afraid, you feel good.
Your imagination is usually scarier than reality
The fear you let build up in your mind is often worse than the actual situation you face. Reality is rarely as bad as what you imagine.
Worries cloud your thinking.
When you worry, you think more about what could go wrong than what could go right.
Our existing beliefs and emotions cloud our judgment and often make responding to change harder and more complicated than it needs to be.
When dealing with change, challenge your beliefs
The biggest inhibitor to change lies within yourself.
When you change what you believe, you change what you do.
You can learn to deal with change.
Dealing with change can be stressful unless you have a simple way of looking at it, understanding it, and managing it.
When you face change, do these things:
Avoid fear-based decision-making. Sometimes we're not aware that we're afraid. Ask yourself: "what would I do if I wasn't afraid?"
Let go of the past and force optimism. Think about what you can gain instead of what you are losing. Change can lead to something better.
Don't overanalyze things. Keep things simple, be flexible, and move fast. Laugh at yourself for how you overcomplicate things.
Imagine success. Use your imagination to paint the most believable picture you can of success.
Get moving. Gather your courage, look at the unknown, and head right into it. Once you get moving, it's rarely as bad as your imagination fears it might be.
Use trial-and-error. Learn as you go. You'll get lost, but you'll find your way eventually.
Anticipate change. Don't be surprised by unexpected change. Change is not an all of a sudden event. Look for the early indicators.
Initiate change. Don't let yourself get too comfortable. It's better to initiate change than to wait for it and have to react to it.
Random anecdotes
Activity and productivity are not synonyms.
In an environment that is constantly changing, the best employees are flexible; not possessive.
When you embrace change and your relationships don't, you sometimes have to leave them behind.
Random quotes
"Life is no straight and easy corridor along which we travel free and unhampered, but a maze of passages, through which we must seek our way, lost and confused, now and again checked in a blind alley. But always, if we have faith, a door will open for us, not perhaps one that we ourselves would ever have thought of, but one that will ultimately prove good for us." —A.J. Cronin