Have You Ever Felt Like Pulling Your Hair Out?

Have you ever had those times when the rain cloud keeps following you around?

Times when challenges come your way out of every corner of your world?

In recent weeks we have had to replace our AC $5,000, had a water-heater leak flooding our finished basement while we were on vacation, $1,000 deductible, and my wife got hit with news of needing nearly $6,000 of dental rework this week due to a fraudulent dentist who skipped town. So how do you handle such challenging times? How do you cope with times when it seems like someone keeps coming into your world and changing the rules of the game without telling you?

There is a little story about mice who keep having their cheese moved that shows how different people respond to the challenges that life throws at us. In this little parable you can picture yourself as well as friends, family and co-workers as each navigates the change that we all will inevitably face during the course of our lives.

One of the great little books on facing and handling change that may come your way is Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life This little 94 page book is a great resource to facilitate discussion within your team during times of change.

This book could be used with your family, business, church or any organization that is facing change. It is a great resource to hand to that team member who is having difficulty handling change that has come their way recently. In today’s world change comes at us at a rapid pace and with rapid fire so we need to be prepared to handle it whether in our families, churches or business organizations.

Spencer Johnson provides an entertaining lesson on several aspects of facing change.

The book is a parable that is set in a maze with four characters. Two of the characters are mice-Sniff & Scurry, the other two characters are little people the size of mice-Hem and Haw. The mice approach the cheese in a nonjudgmental & non analytical manner while their human counter parts have a completely different approach. The humans have developed an identity that is tied to the cheese. The cheese represents whatever it is you are pursuing in life; career success, money, material possessions, family…. You fill in the blank with what your cheese is. What is it you are pursuing with your life? Then that is your cheese and it will be moved often over the course of your life.

As they learn lessons working through the maze they write them on the wall. The lessons take you through the three stages of change listed below.

3 Stages of Change