Hello friends, I’m back! It’s been a crazy few months since the big earthquake and nuclear crisis shook up my life. A BIG Thanks to you all for your support and prayers as I went through some tough times.

As I start a new chapter in my life and set forth in a new direction that will change many things forever, today marks a new beginning here at Secrets of Success as well.

There’s much to say and much to write. I was wondering what to begin with as I get back into the blogoshpere, and I remembered the beautiful story from the book by Dr Spencer Johnson, “Who Moved My Cheese?“.

I am assuming in this article that you have already read this best seller. If you haven’t yet, you are missing out on one of the best advices on coping with changes in all walks of your life. Get this book today! I first read this book over a decade ago, and it always helps to revisit it whenever times change in any small way.

Today, as my life is undergoing some BIG changes, I would like to take some time to put these changes into perspective through the lessons from this book.

The sub-headings below are taken from the lessons in the book. Corresponding to each such lesson, I try to reflect on how my life fits into the parable.

Having Cheese Makes You Happy

So I was living a great life! I had worked hard during my younger years in order to achieve the degree and the job I always wanted, and I did achieve them both. I have a lovely wife and an adorable kid, and we were living a comfortable life in the land of the rising sun.

We had so much cheese, and we were so happy!

The More Important Your Cheese Is To You, The More You Want To Hold On To It

Having lived a quarter of our lives in Japan, my wife and I had had a few talks in the last one year about it probably being time to make a change in our lives and moving on.

But, happy and so comfortable that we were, having that job and living that life was getting increasingly difficult to part with. The cheese seemed all too important to let go.

We should have ideally made the change proactively, but like most times, a trigger was much needed. And so that trigger came in the form of the worst natural calamity that we had ever faced.

I recall that even in the midst of imminent disaster, many people resorted to make-believe and refused to see the dangers. It was a perfect example of not wanting to let go of one’s cheese.

If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct

When faced with a choice between survival and cheese, the choice should be simply obvious. However, many of my colleagues and friends preferred to choose the cheese. They were more afraid of the short term uncertainties of having to leave the cheese than they were of the probability of facing an early death due to the ill effects of the nuclear crisis.

Of course I know that, as was the case with some of my friends, some people had obligations that they just couldn’t do away with all of a sudden. It is a separate matter that they would have not been in those situations if they had smelt the cheese more often earlier.

Anyway, for me the health of my family and myself was more important to me than the cheese, and I knew that it was time to change or risk being extinct.

What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?

The disaster was the worst of its kind. People were afraid. Yet, at the root of all excuses towards not responding to it appropriately, was another kind of fear. Fear of losing one’s job, one’s comfortable lifestyle, etc. etc. etc. It was the fear of letting go of the cheese.

For me the most prominent fear was losing my job and consequently the 7-figure income, the lifestyle I was enjoying in the world’s third largest economy, and the beautiful home (house) that I had set up there over the years.

That was where the big question came up – What would I do if I was not afraid of losing the income, the lifestyle and the material things that I had gotten so attached to?

The answer was simple – I would choose, above all else, the safety of my kid, my wife, our as yet unborn child, and myself. So, against my company’s orders to stay put and serve our customers amidst the nuclear emergency, I did what I should have done days earlier – I flew my family home to safety.

Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old

Like I mentioned earlier, my wife and I had had our talks on it being about time to make a move. Once in a while we would review our life, take a hard look at things that were not right, and come up with things that we could do to make life better. In a way it was like smelling the cheese once in a while.

We were having a hunch that the cheese was getting old and that it was time to go after new cheese. This had led us to think about a few options, like moving on to another country, or moving back home and starting out afresh, or just simply kicking the 9 to 5.

We had some options, though I cannot say any of them was concrete enough. But then, had it not been for the trigger, the options may have always remained just that – non-concrete options.

What might have been the toughest decisions of my life surprisingly didn’t seem all that tough. It was more of a well thought out and cool headed decision, and it was only so because of having smelt the cheese earlier.

Movement In A New Direction Helps You Find New Cheese

We had smelt the cheese, thought not very often, and sensed that it might be time to move on. Having a few options helped in a big way to decide on a direction in which to set forth in search of new cheese.

Together with my wife, I took the decision to quit my job, move out of the country we had been in for close to a decade, leave the 9 to 5 grind, and start out on our own.

If I had to find new cheese, I had to move in a new direction. And what better time to do so than when the cheese had begun to get contaminated with poisonous matter?

So I returned to Japan in the middle of the crisis and, over a period of a month and a half, closed out the life we had carved out there over the years!

I had thought of doing this much more smoothly, one step at a time until I could finally quit the rat race, but I guess the universe had meant this to happen suddenly for me just the way it did.

That brings me to this present day. I have moved on in a new direction, a direction that I have been dreaming of moving in for a long time.

How about finding new cheese? Well, that’s what I am eagerly looking forward to, and hoping the future would unfold smoothly. But as you would recollect from the story of Who Moved My Cheese, running through the maze in search of new cheese can be a daunting task. And here I am, trying to make my way through the maze in search of new cheese.

When You Stop Feeling Afraid, You Feel Good!

This is one of the most important advices I remind myself of these days.

Making the move from a salaried job to the world of infinite possibilities can be a little intimidating at times. I know I have taken a good decision, one that makes me proud, but at the same time I know that I have to act fast and make my life worthwhile going forward.

Though it is only natural for fear of uncertainty to grip me every now and then, it helps me a lot to remember the simple advice that you feel much better when you stop feeling afraid.

Imagining Yourself Enjoying Your New Cheese Leads You To It

It does feel good when you stop feeling afraid. But it does something even more marvelous – it leads you to new cheese.

Reminds me of The Secret. In order to get somewhere, you got to FEEL the feeling of having been there already. That’s exactly what we are talking about here.

How I apply The Secret to my life hereafter will mean a lot in terms of where I land up a few years later. Ironically, here at Secrets of Success, my journey from this day could become an example of a life successfully lived. I hope to make it worth the while, and set a good example of how someone could carve out the life of their dreams.

The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Find New Cheese

I know I would have taken a long time – a few years – to let go off my old cheese, had it not been for the nuclear crisis that gave me the much needed push.

There’s no doubt that you can get to the new cheese sooner if you let go of the old cheese. It’s just a matter of time that I see it happening for myself. I’m sure I can find my new cheese. After all, the law of abundance shows us that there’s enough of it for everyone.

It Is Safer To Search In The Maze Than Remain In A Cheeseless Situation

This one is an obvious fact, but there’s much in it for me.

It gives me the boost to take the risks and do the things that I wouldn’t otherwise do if I was still holding on to the stale cheese.

I preferred to temporarily have a cheeseless situation than to consume radioactive cheese. Now it’s time for me to run through the maze and search for the new and fresh cheese.

Old Beliefs Do Not Lead You To New Cheese

In this context, my old beliefs would have been about the importance of having a good job. But my old beliefs had already changed over the years, and I knew that starting out on my own would be a much better choice.

If I was to take up a new job in my home country now, which I’m sure I would find easily, I would probably get to new cheese faster. However, that wouldn’t be the cheese of my liking.

When You See That You Can Find And Enjoy New Cheese, You Change Course

There was a time when I used to think that having my job was the best option. When I began my career, I was never in favor of starting out on my own.

A change in beliefs, enhanced skill set, and an expanded awareness eventually led me to believe that I can do better in life by setting out on my own.

This point is mentioned towards the end of the story, but is required much earlier in the process. I’m glad that I had given advance thought to the possibility of finding the new cheese. It helped me change the course of my life at the right time.

Noticing Small Changes Early Helps You Adapt To The Bigger Changes That Are To Come

For all that I know, what I perceive to be a big change happening in my life might very well be a small part of a still bigger change. Adapting to this change would certainly help me cope up with bigger changes in the future and help me grow further.

Thinking about it in terms of the job market, I notice that permanent jobs are not permanent anymore. We’ve all seen it happen at least two times – once during the dot come bubble burst, and once again during the sub-prime crisis. I survived both these recessions, but learned some important lessons. What the future holds is only as certain as the uncertain market conditions, and these small changes may actually be pointing to a big change that might someday turn the job market inside out.

Do you see these changes coming the way I do?

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy New Cheese Again

I know that the new cheese will be special, and I’m going to enjoy the journey of finding it.

I also know that my new cheese will someday be moved once again, and I hope that this story will give me the motivation, time and again, to move quickly in search of fresh cheese yet again.

I look forward to moving with the cheese and keeping you all informed of how things progress for me in the maze.

Meanwhile, how about giving a thought to how your cheese station is doing? How would you relate to the story of “Who Moved My Cheese?” with your life as it is today?