AND NOW FOR SOME CHEESE

Running a front-of-room leaders’ program this week I was reminded of the simple, yet multi-layered book called “Who Moved My Cheese?”  It’s been around for a while now yet provides us with both a metaphor and microcosm of what surrounds us day-in, day-out.

Life is an unfathomable maze and if we dare to step out of our comfort zone into the maze, there’s lots more “cheese” available to us.  We can voluntarily choose to step out and leave behind old cheese (the rut, the cosiness, the lack of fulfilment) and set out for pastures new.

Or, as many people are facing in the aftermath of the economic downturn, their particular “cheese” has been taken away.  Yet some still feel they have no choice but to hang around, waiting to see if new cheese arrives, bemoaning the loss of their good familiar cheese.

It’s quite likely that the expression “there’s no cheese at the end of that tunnel” came into usage as a result of the popularity of this book.  It perhaps needs a little contextualizing.  Put simply it means there is no point wasting energy searching or waiting for something that is no longer there or that does not serve you.  Some examples are:

o   Going over and over the old ground of a particular situation – nothing will change by simply repeating the story.

o   Trying to change someone else using a variety of tactics

o   Making excuses for yourself as to why something has not happened or has not been done

o   Remaining in a rut and blaming others for it.

So, the message is to be like Haw, the character in the book who is fearful and yet is prepared to let go of the past, realizing that things have to change and the only person that can change them is himself.  

If you are hanging around waiting for cheese to be put in front of you, consider what you might do to take action.  If you can find the courage to venture out, you raise the chances of finding cheese that is even more delicious and plentiful somewhere else in the wonderful maze that we call life.

LYNN