Who Moved My Cheese? (Part III)

 Have you ever read the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” The summer before I entered the 7^th grade this book appeared on my required reading list and I devoured it in a single sitting. The main characters consisted of two mice, Sniff and Scurry and two small humans named Hem and Haw. All four of them live in a maze where they spend their days searching for cheese. In the story, they come across “Cheese Station C,” and establish their daily routine based on the assumption that the cheese supply will be everlasting. However, one day all four characters arrive to discover that “Cheese Station C” is empty... someone had moved the cheese!

The book uses allegory to explore and question the different ways people adapt to change. Are you willing to seek out new cheese? Or will you allow yourself to be victimized and blame others for your lack of cheese? Ultimately, the message is portrayed that we are the mice in our own mazes spending day after day seeking out the “cheese” of life. We can either take a proactive approach to seek out cheese, or we can give up when the cheese becomes scarce or hard to find.

For some reason, this life lesson on change never really sat well with me. I don’t know about you, but I am not content to live out my life stuck in a maze! Apparently another author agrees with my consensus and he, a Harvard Business School graduate, penned the book, “I Moved Your Cheese: For Those Who Refuse to Live as Mice in Someone Else’s Maze.” I literally had to laugh out loud at his attempt to change a timeless self-help classic into a motivational “take-control-of-your-own-destiny” kind of book. In my eyes, Author #2 ended up fencing himself into the same box as the Author #1. The new breed of mice may break the rules, challenge the limitations and set out to create new realities, but at the end of the day there is still a maze and the mice still seek out cheese.

I jokingly asked some friends, are you “cheese seekers,” or “cheese movers?” But in my head I found myself questioning, what’s the point? What if I don’t want to just run through the metaphorical maze seeking the cheese day after day? What if I honestly don’t care about what the other mice are doing in the maze? Well guess what? If I am not a “cheese seeker,” or a “cheese mover,” then I think I would prefer to BE the CHEESE!

Society teaches us that our value is determined by our identity, our self-worth, our image, our wealth, our religion, our culture, and our families. Success (or in this case the CHEESE) is what determines our happiness and hope for the future... I believe that WE determine our own value. Although all of us have been influenced both positively and negatively by our parents, teachers, mentors, coaches, bosses, co-workers, etc, ultimately we should feel confident enough in our own abilities to give ourselves the credit we deserve.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in humility, I believe in just desserts. But I also believe in self-confidence, and happiness. I believe in being responsible for your own success. Yes, there are those that helped us to get to where we are, but did those individuals write our stories, attend our classes, graduate with our degrees? The answer is an emphatic NO. We did that. We have put in the hours on the treadmill to lose that last stubborn pound, we have pulled all-nighters to finished those 20 page papers that we “meant” to do weeks ago, we have written, we have spoken, we have given up sleep, blood and tears to become who we are today. And we deserve to be able to “own” every bit of that, the good and the bad.

Being the cheese means acknowledging that ultimately, it comes down to us. In those still quiet moments in the maze of life we are not seeking and we are not moving, simply existing as ourselves is enough. Being the cheese means that other mice will come to us. If we are the cheese then we are exhibiting something that makes others look at us walking down the street and say, “wow,” not because we have real-life-Barbie-dimensions, but because we know how to hold our heads up and look people in the eyes with confidence and kindness. Why should we waste our time looking for cheese when we are already everything we were created to be?

When mice seek cheese it is because they are hungry, they are bored or they are unfilled. They seek cheese because they are told that they are built to seek cheese out with insatiable hunger. In their emptiness they find themselves constantly focused on the goal, the cheese, and penned in by the maze that surrounds them. They are so ravenous for something to fulfill the emptiness in them that they forget about what is already inside of them. Like Author #2 said, “The maze is in the mouse!”

Beloved, I wholeheartedly believe that God created each of us in His own perfect image. He has filled my life with such joy that I no longer feel the need to run through any maze seeking cheese. I am fulfilled. Regardless of whether or not you share my belief, my prayer for you is that this year you change your maze-traveling, cheese-seeking mentality. Re-wire your head and your heart until you begin to believe in yourself again. Identify your gifts and fall in love with your own passions... you already have everything you need. As far as I’m concerned:

YOU ARE THE CHEESE!