Who Moved My Cheese: Overcoming the Obstacles

The author of Who Moved My Cheese is Spencer Johnson. He was not only a writer but a physician too. He graduated from Notre Dame High School and then got a Bachelor of Arts degree in phycology from the University of Southern California. He then later got his medical degree in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Although he had all these great accomplishments, he is best known for his very motivational novel, Who Moved My Cheese. I selected this book because my mom had read it and said how much it helped her when she was going through a very big change in her life. Who moved my cheese is a really great motivational business story. It shows ways how to deal with change in your life and work. Four typically normal reactions to changes were portrayed by two mice and two “little people” during their hunt for cheese. The book was a New York Times bestseller and sold over 26 million copies in more than 37 different languages.

The novel features two mice, “Sniff” and “Scurry”, then two little people ( they are in the book to portray a human metaphor) named “Hem” and “Haw”. Throughout the book, it explains how they live in the maze to represent a human’s environment. While they’re in the maze they search for cheese that represents success and happiness. They split off into groups and one day, one of the groups found “cheese station C” which was a cheese-filled corridor. They were very happy with their finds so the humans started getting in the habit of a daily intake of cheese but then became arrogant over it. Sniff and Scurry went to the station one time to find that there wasn’t any cheese left but that wasn’t very surprising to them. Hem knew that they needed to go find more cheese but haw was scared for the unknown. When the humans go back to station c they also came to find out that there isn’t any cheese left. They both become very angry becasue they were relying on the cheese supply and but then come up with the same idea to go look for more cheese. In the meantime, Sniff and Scurry had found more cheese which was station N. Haw is still very fearful at this point and was content with his routine but after some time, Haw decides it time to move on and become happy. He realized that “When you move beyond fear, you’ll become free”. They end up finding another cheese station but hem refuses to try the new cheese. Haw, upset that his friend doesn’t want to continue the search, goes back into the maze to hunt some more. As he is doing that, he leaves messages on the walls in the hope that his friend will read them and join him again. After traveling for a long time Haw finds station N but decides to still inspect different parts of the maze daily to avoid what happened before.

In life when change occurs, instead of being afraid of it and not wanting ot ty new things, you need to get the positives out of the situation and focus on those. If you don’t accept change then that leads to unhappiness. The people that go towards Sniff and Scurys route benefit more from change. On the other hand, people who go to Hem and Haws way tend to struggle a lot more and fear the unknown. The main idea and key thing to do in the maze is when change comes your way, you need to make use of it in the best way possible. In the book, spencer states that Sniff and Scurry, “had noticed the supply of cheese had been getting smaller every day, they were prepared for the inevitable and knew instinctively what to do” (Spencer 8). The way that they were prepared showed the plan that people should have when they come in contact with change. In the middle of all the change you have to remain positive. In the book, spencer also states that Haw realizes, “Imagining myself enjoying the cheese even before I find it leads me to it” (Spencer 17). It is very healthy for everyone in todays world to set goals and want to achieve them. To adapt positively to an envirnmetn you need to get rid of all fear. As I read in the book, Haw was very nervous at first but it was worth it to leave and try new things.

I feel that Spencer really goes through with the whole idea of tryint ot acppet and over come the fear of change nad letting go of all of the unsureness of what will later come. BEing afraid of the future is scary but you cant let it tak over your life. As i read chapter by chapter i better understood the message he was trying to convey. His purpose was very clear to me. There wasn’t any bias going on through the the novel, except for maybe the fact that Spencer has been in that situation before where he had to overcome the fear from change so taking what he already knew and turning what he learned from his experiences into a book was a good way for the reader to connect with the text. There were definitely more strengths than weakness ins the book. I know for one that a big strength was him being able to engage with the audience. Reading this novel really helped me out, not only as a student but a person too. Therefore, I would definitely recommend this book to a friend of mine. I feel that anyone struggling with change whether it be big or small should take the time to read it. I think that the author really achieved his goal in the thesis of accepting change.