“Life moves on and so should we…What would you do if you weren’t afraid? When you stop being afraid, you feel good.”
Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese
Summer is definitely a season of change for me and my family. I look forward to it. My children get a break from school routines, and so do I! One of the things I love most is having time to catch up with them in the speed of summer. My daughter and I have been taking turns reading together out loud for years. This precious time is one way we connect.
This summer, my teenage son and I are sharing some reading, too. He showed me a list of books he wanted to read, so I picked up a few copies. One night, when I was wide awake after everyone else was asleep, I went to a quiet spot in the house and read, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. Though I read this book years ago, I am grateful for the invitation to read it again. Once I started, I read it all the way to the end! A quick read, I had it done in about an hour or so. And it was more than worth the time.
Summary & Insights
First of all, I’m grateful for invitations. I feel like everyone and everything can teach me something. This little book came along at the perfect time. I was considering signing up for Yoga Teacher Training, and I was feeling a little uncomfortable with the change I knew I’d experience. While I trust the process and life’s beautiful unfolding, I was questioning whether or not to take this next step.
When I read this book, I was able to put myself in the place of each of the four characters and feel what I have felt over the years. Change happens. It just does! How we respond will determine the quality of our lives. The story follows these four characters through a literal maze of life after their cheese has been taken away. The cheese represents anything we value like relationships, work, health, material wealth or any other area of life. We can respond to the change in various ways like…
- Noticing that change is happening while we’re in our current situation and embrace that we will soon simply move on to the next logical thing.
- Realizing all of a sudden that change happened and set out to discover our next endeavor.
- Resisting change until we can no longer stand being in the same place over and over again.
- Staying in denial while waiting for things to go back to the way they were, ignoring the impact it is having on our day-to-day lives.
The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese, the Sooner You Find New Cheese
Spencer Johnson points out that, of course, the longer you wait to flow with the changes, the greater the effect on your life. The sooner you adapt, the better the opportunities. How do you want to feel about your life each day? That is the biggest question. Ultimately, you may end up where you want to be, but what is the net impact on your quality of life?
Reading this book at this time in my life couldn’t have been more timely. I was noticing how much I needed a change, and I knew I had to go with it. The moment I did, I felt freer. I had more confidence, more optimism, more clarity about the future. And, most of all, I felt more grounded in the present moment.
I realize that making a decision to change when it’s time to change empowers us. It gives us strength to move forward. When we do move forward, we may not even know exactly where we’re going, but we know it’s better than not moving at all. The more we do this, the more exciting it becomes to step into the great unknown. This is the journey of life! We don’t have to know everything, but we can know in our hearts that no matter what, we will be right where we ought to be.
Imagining Myself Enjoying New Cheese Even Before I Find It Leads Me To It
Here’s to New Cheese!
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