How To Deal With Change [Who Moved My Cheese]

Change is the only constant thing on earth, my senior software developer told me when he talked about my issues being late during my stay in one of my previous companies. Filipinos find if hard to adapt with change, and so makes it hard to deal with change according to him. But in fact, it's not just Filipinos but every people is susceptible to not being able to adapt once a change takes place or imposed.

I found what he said a hard pill to swallow but it was true. I was complaining how things used to be the way they were, and so was the reason I was losing interest at work and getting late.

Change is something that not only happens on our work. It happens in our families, with our friends, in the mall, on the road (like a sudden, heavy traffic), etc. How do we react? Are we allowing ourselves to be affected by what other people say and conform to how they think and feel instead of making our own minds?

My wife gave me a book as our anniversary gift entitled Who Moved My Cheese. It's very short but full of lessons that you could use in your everyday life and story that you could pass on for all generations to come.

The book teaches how to deal with change or how to look for the cheese that is being moved all of the time. I will not be telling you about the story here, that is for the book to do. Instead, I'm here to share with you some of the things I learned reading the book.

And here they are...

We complain instead of doing something - Do you notice in yourself how much we complain instead of doing something? We focus on things we don't have control of, we keep whining instead of getting something done. For example, you're asked to file several folders and instead of doing the job, you start telling your office colleague how much you hate doing it. A lot of time is wasted, imagine how much work has been accomplished if you started doing the job instead of complain?

Two kinds of fear - There are two kinds of fear discussed in the book. The fear that makes us do something because we're afraid that things such as our negligence will cause something bad, and a fear that simply holds us back from accomplishing. The second type of fear is destructive as it deprives us of our true potential. There is a certain phrase in the book that says "what would you do if you weren't afraid" and is a very good phrase to remind me all the time if my fear is holding me back from doing something. This kind of fear is often an exaggeration of what is in reality.

Take a boy who likes a girl for example. He fears rejection and so he couldn't tell a girl how he feels about her. What would he do if he weren't afraid? If he did that, I'm sure that greater things will follow for him even if he didn't win the girl's heart.

We get too comfortable - We resist change because we refuse to get out of our comfort zone. I wonder what happens when you try to wake up a bear from hibernate mode? We think that there would be an endless supply of cheese when in fact, the world has only so much to give. Being too comfortable has a lot of bad side effects such as getting overweight, dull mind, and finding even greater cheese. Remember, the only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

We blame others for our misfortune - We always look for someone to blame for our misfortune. We blame the government and we think of what the country can do for us instead of what we can do for the country. However, much of our misfortunes stems from our own fault. For example, the flooding that happens around our country stems from irresponsible throwing of garbage such as candy wrappers and cigarette butts (ooops, sorry).

We stop dreaming or have no goal - When are we too old to dream? I think that we're never too old to dream. I have not verified but a mentor once told me that Henry Sy (the founder of SM Malls) still dream big at 80 (not his current age). Our dreams or our goals will make us move forward because we know that at the end of the corridor lies a door and behind it is the reward for our perseverance. By keeping our minds towards our goal there is no amount of fear that can stop us. Even our physical limitations wouldn't be enough to prevent us from reaching our goals. The law of attraction and lessons from the book called The Alchemist suggests that the universe re-arranges itself to help us achieve something if we really want it. Truly, when one has a why (goal) to live, he can overcome any how (roadblocks).

Why do we resist change? Should every change in our life be welcomed? I ask myself a similar question and my answer is... Identify the benefits that come with the change. Who moved my cheese also tells us to anticipate change, be ready with change and adapt with change. Being able to adapt with change isn't always external, in fact I find it mostly internal as the things required for us to adapt to change is the change within ourselves and our outlook in life.

There's a lot more in the book that I can only do so much to explain. The best way to use it is to read it and reflect upon your past experiences in life and there you'll realize where you've gone wrong and what you could have done to make it right.

I hope that this post starts your year in the right the direction. Do yourself a favor and read the book. Also, share it with your family and friends! Happy New Year!