Who Moved My Cheese?

In leadership school we discussed the book “Who Moved My Cheese” in relation to expectations and how life often leads down unexpected paths. I can’t say a lot about it right now but this last week has had a lot of “cheese movement” moments. I have some clarity about where I’ll be but there are still some things that are up in the air. Things got pretty crazy for me this week, and I have some control but I’m also praying a lot about where God wants me to be. Before I know it I will have my answer and so there’s no reason to agonize about it now.

I went through some spell creation with Chris this week, just to see how long it would take. We’re starting to figure out that 15 step pipeline to batch or automate portions of it. That said a lot of my time this week was eaten up by the “cheese movement” in my life. I put a lot of effort into finding a way forward and at times I found I couldn’t even relax. One night in particular I didn’t sleep well at all. I do feel a peace about it now however.

The book “Who Moved My Cheese” is about 2 mice and 2 humans. Every day they all wake up and run the maze to get the cheese. Eventually the humans decide to build houses closer to the cheese in the maze and they invest a lot of personal time and effort into it. One day they all wake up and go to where the cheese has always been to find that it isn’t there. The mice take this opportunity to search the maze to find more cheese, but the humans become distraught. The humans cry, and complain wasting precious time instead of going to find new cheese.

Many of us are in that exact position right now. In 2020 we might have had plans to graduate, retire, get married, vacation, or any number of other things. I realized when I went to conventions year after year that I would try to re-create experiences from previous years only to come up short. It was important for me to realize that the moments in our lives are so special and so it’s important to really take them in because they can end at any time without warning. There have been many things that I wished went the way that I had thought, but I’m so thankful to have had the experiences I had, and I look forward to experiencing all new things!

Some of us are sitting at home crying about it, wishing things were different. Still others of us have found creative ways to discover “new cheese”. Things that are new aren’t comfortable, it’s painful to grow. After going through a lot of changes and growth I’ve experience it first hand. Right now the trick for me is to keep growing and keep moving forward as I search for my “cheese.”