Questions and Answers to Who Moved My Cheese? By: Debra Brune Bloomingdale Elementary

Debra Brune   July 17, 2015
Bloomingdale Elementary/ Paraprofessional

Blog for the questions on: Who Moved My Cheese? 

Question #1:  In Johnson's book the cheese is a metaphor. What does it represent?

Answer: The cheese represents what you want to have in life. The things that you feel will make you happy, like a job change, a loving relationship, money, or just a Spiritual peace of mind. I would like to just have a Spiritual peace of mind. I feel like if I have that, my faith in God will grow stronger and God will be able to help me to see the better things happening in my life.

Question #2:  What does the maze represent?

Answer:  The maze represents where you spend your time looking for what you want in life.

Question #3:  Identify both the cheese and the maze in your own life.  Then consider what might happen if someone moved your cheese.  Imagine the ways you might have to cope with the changes.

Answer:  The cheese in my life is being moved constantly. My life is a big maze, which causes me to move my cheese a lot. My cheese got moved about three years ago when my husband of twenty-four years told me that he wanted a divorce. I never thought I would hear those words come out of his mouth. I felt like my whole world was shattered!  Since then, my life has been a maze that changes often.  Once I got over the shock,  I had to re-evaluate everything in my life, especially finances.  I had to think about how to help my son, as well as myself, to cope without having his father around and me not having a husband.  I tried to handle things myself, but finally realized that I could not do it on my own. Therefore; I got on my knees, and gave it to God.  He is how I made it through the changes.

Question #4:  What changes have you already experienced in your life?  How did you react to the changes?  Were you threatened, angry, frightened, disoriented, or excited by the challenge (come on.... be honest!)?  After reading Who Moved By Cheese?  Do you feel you dealt as well as you could have with those changes?

Answer:  A few changes that have occurred in my life is my divorce, meeting a new man, and now dealing with a change in my job position this upcoming school year.  With my divorce, I felt angry, hurt, bitter, frightened, and disoriented. Being single at the age of forty-five, was not a part of my future that I had planned. Eventually,  through the Grace of God, I got passed all of those things and over the shock of it all!
Then, I felt like Haw, realizing that my life was a lot better off without him, and I did not need to try to go back to the past.  Furthermore; I realized just to take what was now dealt to me and move on!  Therefore; that is exactly what I did, I put all of my trust and faith in God, not man, and moved forward!  Since then, I have met another man, changed my whole outlook on life, and have become a stronger person because of it.

Question #5:  Has Johnson's book helped you see how change can be beneficial... in life in general, as well as in your own work or personal life?

Answer:  Yes, this book has definitely helped me to realize that I was in my own comfort zone at home, and at work.  Also, I have come to the reality that everything does happen for a reason, and God has opened a new door for me at work. I just needed to accept the change, and think about how to make it beneficial for me. Now, I am hitting the change head on, accepting the things that change, and asking God for the strength to accept the things that I cannot change.  We have a choice to accept things that life throws at us everyday, or to be like Hem and wait, hoping things will go back to the way they were, which DOES NOT happen too often! I would rather move my cheese and expand, instead of waiting to find out if my old life will come back!

Question #6:  If you read "A Discussion," the book's third section, what did you learn from the way others interpreted the book?  Were any situations similar to your own?

Answer:  I learned that we all can relate to at least one of the characters, if not all, just as the others related their lives to one of the characters.  Yes, several of the situations were similar to many of the situations that I have, or am dealing with in my own life.

Question #7:  Do you wish Johnson had offered concrete answers to the question of dealing with change?  Would you have preferred a "how-to" approach, say, a step-by-step guide?  Or do you appreciate the way in which readers are free to interpret and apply the parable for themselves?  Which approach is more helpful to you?

Answer:  No, I do not wish Johnson would have offered more concrete answers.  I appreciate the way readers are free to interpret the parable because it helps the person to think about their own lives, and the changes happening to them. It helps the person to realize how it relates to changes in their own life, and possibly help them to accept the changes so that they can be more beneficial to themselves and others. The free to interpret approach is more helpful to me because not every person can handle change the same way, or approach in the same direction.  Therefore; people need to make their own choices so that they cannot blame others for the decisions they make, rather they are right or wrong.

Question #8:  In the parable, Johnson says the four characters represent the four parts of ourselves, from the simple to the complex.  What does he mean:  which character represents which part of ourselves?  Is there one character you relate to more than the others?  

Answer:  He means that we all have some part of each character in us, but we don't always realize it.  The Sniffs are people who can sniff out changes in life, and update their vision before they are left behind.  The Scurrys are people who take charge and gets the job done. They see the new vision and run with it, but need to be monitored so they do not stray away in the wrong direction.  The Hems are people who like to feel safe and prefer to stay in a comfort zone, not realizing that if they do not change, they will get left behind times and looking for another job. Change makes sense to them, but they are afraid to adventure out too far because they are afraid of failing.  Finally, the Haws are people who are hesitant to change at first, because they are not sure of what to expect, or if they will like the change.  Even though, they keep an open-mind enough to learn something new, and adapt to change.  They focus more on the positive part of change instead of the negative.
The one character that I can relate to more than others is Haw. When life has thrown me changes, my first reaction is being very hesitant to change, but eventually accept the change and focus on how beneficial it can be to my life.

Question #9:  Why is it so hard for most of us (all of us?) to accept change?

Answer:  It is hard for us to accept change because it takes us out of our comfort zone. It forces us to find new cheese, regardless if we want to or not. We focus more on what the downside of change is, instead of the beneficial side of the situation.