Who Moved My Cheese is a parable about 2 mice named Sciff and Scurry and 2 little people named Hem and Haw. The story is focused on Sciff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw on the search for cheese as they travel through a maze. The maze in the story represents all the compartments of life. The cheese represents what make us happy in life or anything we need to survive. The move of the cheese represents the unexpected change we experience in life. The question is how do we handle the change?
Sciff and Scurry handled their search for cheese very different than He and Haw. Every morning the mice took the same route to find their cheese and looked for any changes along the way. When the cheese disappeared they were not surprised as they had been monitoring the situation along the way every day.
The little people did quite the opposite. They started to change their routine believing the cheese would always be there for them to enjoy. They felt entitled to the cheese because they worked so hard in finding it. Hem and Haw were in shock when their cheese was gone. They had not been paying attention to the changes taking place with less cheese being available. They didn’t know what to do. They were angry, yelled, and did not want to deal with what had occurred. The next morning the cheese had not reappeared. They wondered what Sciff and Scuff knew they they didn’t know. They wanted to figure out what was going on. All the while Sciff and Scuff had moved on dealing with the change.
The little people waited every day without making any changes to see if the cheese reappeared. It did not. They became tired, weak, and stressed of waiting. Haw decided he needed to do something. Hem was too fearful of going back into the maze. He liked his comfort zone. Haw grabbed his running shoes, left his friend and made the change himself by going back into the maze. Along the way he hoped that Hem would follow behind so he left messages for him on the wall of the maze.
Haw realized that if he had been paying attention the change would not have taken him by surprise. He knew that this must be what Sciff and Scurry had been doing. He knew from now on he needed to plan on change and plan for it. Fear of the unknown ahead in the maze was frightening, but Haw let it go and it felt good to him. Haw thought about going back to help Hem, but he realized Hem had to change for himself. If he could tread the handwriting on the wall, he could follow the trail he left for him.
Haw thought about what he had learned through this experience:
Change Happens
Anticipate Change
Monitor Change
Adapt to Change
Change more with the cheese
Enjoy the Change
Then do it all over again.
What we must ask our self is -Which character are we in this story?
