Filed under: book nook, leadership & youth | Tags: spencer johnson, who moved my cheese
Who Moved My Cheese? was brilliantly written by Spencer Johnson, the narrative is pretty simple and entertaining. After reading this book, it became one of my all time favorites. I recently recommended this book to my ten year old niece. I know it can be easily understood and appreciated by people of different age range, gender, and backgrounds.
The story of the book is about four mice size characters living inside a maze faced with the challenge of changing and adapting to unexpected situations. Two of the characters are people named Hem and Haw, while the other two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. One morning they all woke up to find that their cheese are gone, hence the title, “Who Moved My Cheese?”
The book is a cute story that actually represents different types of people in our society. Those who can easily adapt to change and those who have a hard time and sometimes tries to fight change. Hem represents those who feel they are treated unfairly and are paralyzed whenever there is change happening. Sniff and Scurry represents those people who can easily adapt to change. Haw on the other hand typifies individuals who starts to analyze things, tries to comprehend the reason behind the change before venturing out into the unknown, and eventually going with the flow of change.
In any team or group, there will always be a Sniff & Scurry and a Hem & Haw. Even in youth ministry, I can see that there are young people who are paralyzed and finds it hard to adapt to change while others are careful and consciously considering everything, trying to evaluate first the situation, before venturing out and dealing with the changes. I guess most of us try to resist change because we are afraid of the unknown, young people are no exceptions. We dearly love and value security and assurance but the fact is, change is the only thing that we can count on. Change is inevitable. We can cry all we want, complain all we want, but change will still occur. Change is not always good and most change doesn’t happen overnight, but sometimes it can definitely lead to something better.
I hope every youth minister or leader, even young people will get to read this book, especially those who are experiencing change. It can enlighten and give a person a new perspective on changing and adapting. I love each and every “handwriting on the wall” made by Haw because it contains simple facts. Allow me to share five of my favorite reflections (handwriting on the wall):
(1) The more important your cheese is to you the more you want to hold on to it.
“Isn’t this true? The things we deem as dear or important are like slipping sands in our hand, the more that we try to tightly hold on to them?”
(2) What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
“Ah, the universal question. What would you do if fear is not an option?”
(3) When you move beyond your fear, you feel free.
“Freedom is usually found when we conquer our fear.”
(4) The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese
(Chuckles) “New cheese smells better! When we free our hands with old things, we actually prepare it to take on new things.”
(5) Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.
“It’s best to be aware of tiny changes and expect the inevitable than to wake up one day in complete shock. You’ll require immediate and severe resuscitation!”
Nice reflections, right? Pretty simple but quite truthful. This book encourages the reader to view or see change in a different perspective, when a person views it in a different way, it helps the individual to cope better with change. This book is a bestseller that helped change lives! I totally recommend it, there’s a movie based on the book. It’s being utilized by different companies and organizations to help their employees understand change.
(video credit: Red Tree and whomovedmycheese.com)
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