Club Solutions Magazine made an initiative in 2012 to educate employees further on business and motivation. As a media company we continually focus on changes in magazine, web and digital content. However, as a magazine devoted to business, we also focus on business solutions — both for fitness clubs and for our own company.
We have started reading book after book as a company to help motivate and inspire us to be better people and better employees at Club Solutions Magazine. Sounds like we are brainwashing ourselves, right? Maybe a little, but it’s all in the best interest of Club Solutions (brainwashed) and our careers.
I would like to use this blog to let you in on some books you should share with your employees — or if you have already, please use the comment box below to let me know your thoughts on the book.
The most recent that really grabbed my attention was “Who Stole My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life,” by Spencer Johnson.
The book discusses four separate characters, Sniff and Scurry (two mice), and Hem and Haw (two little people that are the size of mice). These characters’ lives are devoted to searching out cheese in this maze.
In the early portion of the story all four characters find cheese. They enjoy the cheese and spend day after day eating cheese and enjoying life. However, what the reader won’t see is how dormant they are becoming. They no longer look for new cheese because they are so comfortable with the cheese they have..
One day the cheese that they had enjoyed for so long was gone. The two mice quickly put their shoes back on (laugh, mice in shoes) and took off in search for more cheese. However, the two little people that were more logical and possessed stronger mental capabilities stayed where the cheese once was and worked to figure out how to get the cheese back. The cheese never returned.
All the characters, except one, eventually set out in an attempt to find new cheese. Of the characters that looked for new cheese, they all eventually went through certain difficulties and fears, but they all find new cheese — the one character that doesn’t was the one that decided to stay and wait for his old cheese to return.
If you look at the story for what it is, four characters attempting to find cheese, you might not get the point. However, that’s not the objective. You are supposed to use cheese as what you desire most in your own life. Once I thought about the book, I could see how my cheese had been moved several times. I started thinking about my friends and family as well. I noticed that their cheese had been moved several times over the years.
We tend to get upset when change occurs, and that’s OK. As humans we aren’t comfortable with change. We enjoy the comforts of routine and things staying the same forever and always. However, that’s just not how our world works — especially in our fast moving society.
Change is inevitable, and how you deal with it is up to you. It’s guaranteed that in your lifetime your cheese will be moved. It may be the loss of a job, or it could be something in your personal life. What makes issues easier to deal with is your understanding that your cheese is going to be moved, and what makes you successful is being able to move with the cheese.
I know writing about following the cheese sounds simple, but I too would prefer my cheese to stay plentiful and in the same location throughout my entire life. But, I know that won’t be the case. I’ve started to see my cheese moved in different tasks throughout my day. I plan a goal and devise a way to execute — many times something in that execution is changed (something moved my cheese). That’s not preferred, but it does happen. What makes me strong is being aware that my cheese will be moved, and I must be ready to develop and execute a new plan to discover more cheese.
If you’ve read “Who Moved My Cheese?” what did you think? Did the story hit home with you and make you think about instances in your life? Did it make you think about your current job or problems you may be trying to over come? Everyone has stories about their cheese being moved — I’d love to hear yours.
Tyler Montgomery is the Editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com
