Who Moved Your Cheese?
Learning how to detect change and adapt when it strikes.
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
It’s the early 2000s. I recall sitting in my mom’s Honda. Her car was always spotless and orderly, and if we ever left so much as a crumb, we would feel her wrath. The only thing always allowed to be out of place was a thin book tucked between the driver’s seat and the middle console. My dad bought that book at a Hudson News stand during an airport layover and passed it on to my mom to read. Instead of putting it on a bookshelf, she kept it by the driver’s side to read through whenever she had time.
As a kid, I’d leaf through the book when I was bored in the car, but never actually read it until two decades years later. A few weeks ago I asked my dad if he still had the copy, and he handed it to me. It may sound cheesy, but it’s a book from 1998 about cheese. More importantly, it’s a book about something most of us fear: change.
Life is like a maze, and we spend a lot of time in there looking for what we want (Cheese. Yes it’s a metaphor.) Cheese takes many shapes but it’s things like the career we dream of, relationships we long for, or the community we want to be part of, or home we want to build. But it’s not a straight line. It’s usually more of a confusing labyrinth with dead-ends and unexpected turns. Sometimes it feels like we are going around in circles, only to realize later that we were climbing up a spiral the entire time.
Who Moved My Cheese, is a short book about two little humans and two mice, and how each reacts differently when their beloved cheese disappears. It’s about learning to sniff change early, scurry into action, overcome the fear of change, and adapt in time to see that change usually leads to somewhere better. In other words, it’s about taking the long way home no matter how many changes come our way… and learning to enjoy the process.
It takes about two hours to read, so I recommend you read it for yourself. But here are some of my biggest learnings that may be helpful for you too:
1. Don’t get too comfortable, or you won’t be ready for what’s next.
It’s cliche for a reason: the only certainty is uncertainty. When we get too comfortable with something, we become blind to the subtle signs of change happening around us. It’s not to say we shouldn’t enjoy the moment or where we are, but means staying grounded in the present while keeping a pulse of when the air starts to change and prepared to act when the moment does.
2. Fear is normal, but it doesn’t have to stop us.
Running through a confusing maze is risky, and it’s normal to be scared in the face of uncertainty. But traveling through a maze is also an adventure. It’s thrilling, enlightening, tough, and even fun.
There’s a quote that I love by the founder of Patagonia, Yvonne Chouinard, that says something like, “When something goes wrong is where adventure begins.” Instead of allowing fear to paralyze us, how can we use it as fuel to move forward with courage? Out in the maze, we face challenges and face our demons, but isn’t that exactly what we’ve been training for? These adventures are often when we feel most alive!
3. Activity vs Productivity.
In the book, when the cheese disappears, the mice scurry off into the maze to search for it elsewhere. Meanwhile, the little humans start drilling holes in the walls, convinced the cheese must be hidden inside. They work longer and harder, but all they’re left with are holes… and no cheese anywhere to be found.
Eventually, one of the little humans suggests waiting for the cheese to return. Meanwhile, the other laces up his sneakers and prepares to head into the maze in search of other cheese. He’s nervous, but determined to venture out.
Doing the same thing over and over (ahem… drilling holes searching for cheese that is no longer there) while hoping for a different result is activity, not progress. Sometimes growth comes not from trying harder, but from changing direction.
There are, of course, things we cannot change. The point of this isn’t for us to try to control everything or pounce on any sudden change. It can also be about acknowledging that even a change of mindset, can work wonders.
4. When we move beyond our fear, we feel free.
It’s only when we realize we’ve been held captive only by our own fear, that we start to feel how invigorating it is to be on an adventure. We feel refreshed with new movement.
I’ve felt this on my “Long Way Home” trips. When I was in places like Morocco, Cuba, and Japan, I remember wondering why those experiences felt so good. Not because they were easy. Travel takes effort and can be emotionally draining. But because in my everyday life, it often feels like I don’t have life fully figured out yet.
I remember worrying about whether I was being responsible by being on those trips, anxious about money, and stressed about middle-of-the-night calls in Asia just to keep up appearances at work, and wondering if I’d be safe as a solo female traveler. There was also the mental and emotional weight of seeing how people live in these vastly different places, often with so little.
And yet, when you’re out there talking with strangers, forming genuine connections, and navigating unfamiliar experiences, life suddenly feels less serious.
Those fears of not being good enough, not having enough money, not having it all figured out… begin to fade. And what remains is the simple joy of feeling alive.
When we let go of the fear and trust what lies ahead, we discover what nourishes our soul and gives us freedom.
5. Growth usually happens in the area outside of familiarity.
Venturing into the unknown is how we discover new parts of ourselves and the world. It may look like travel, a career shift, sports, or even something as small as going out of your way to talk with a stranger or to take a different route home.
Sometimes it’s stepping out of our physical comfort zone, but other times it’s our mental one. Our limitations are often shaped by our own perceptions, and it’s only by stepping outside them that we begin to see what we’re capable of.
Orson Welles said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” Think about that for a second and maybe like me, you will realize he is right. Who would we be without challenges, change, and limitations? For the best works of art and human endeavors are often born from friction. Humans thrive when we’re given some parameters, and then push to shatter them. Imagine life without change… I think we’d be bored!
What to Do When Cheese Moves (because yes, it will get moved)
Everyone defines their “cheese” differently. For some, it’s material success. For others, it’s health, family, purpose, or a particular job. But what happens when we devote years to chasing our cheese, only to discover one day that it’s gone?
Cheese disappearing can mean loosing a job we loved or not getting into the university we hoped for. It can mean watching a product we spent years building, suddenly loose funding. Or realizing the place you call home no longer fits who we are becoming. While we can’t predict when the change will strike, we can prepare ourselves to act once we sense it.
Some of us notice change early and begin preparing. Others lace up their shoes and immediately head into the maze. Some stay in denial, hoping the cheese will return because the unknown feels too frightening. And some pause to ask a deeper question: Why do I want this cheese in the first place? And how can I adapt the situation?
Which one are you?
It’s in that long, winding process of exploration, where we get lost, meet others along the way, pause to ask “why,” or sit in the sun for a moment, that we grow. Growth rarely happens at point A or point B. It always happens somewhere in between.
And maybe, just maybe, by choosing to take the long way home, we find the best cheese of all. The kind we never expected to find, because we were never looking for it in the first place.
(Enjoyed this piece? Give it a like or leave a comment, it helps others find this work. And if you read the book, please let the know! For fellow book-lovers, check out the article below about my favorite book)
I remember that book from my childhood, too! And you use it well as a metaphor. Adaptation is a skill—-the more you use it the better you get.
Wonderful synopsis of a book that I have heard of but never read. I don’t think most, or maybe any of us, have it all figured out. There is usually something that we cling to or something else that we want or don’t want. Interesting how that book came into your life and maybe it was just at the right time. 🙏