I Moved Your Cheese Read Online Free PDF

escape.”
    â€œAnd everything else followed from that,” added Zed.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou had a thought. And that thought directed actions that gave physical shape to your thought—to your vision. It is the same with me. I did what I thought I could do. I did what I decided was the way it had to be. I do not think about the maze, or its walls, the way most others do. You and I have that in common.”
    â€œBut there is a difference,” said Max. “What I did was … possible. What you did … physically, or however … is not … It defies everything we know. It’s not supposed to be.”
    â€œThen there is no difference at all,” said Zed. “There’s not a mouse in the maze who thought it was possible for you to accomplish what you did. It transcended
their
thinking, but not yours.”
    â€œI agree. But, still, there is a difference. I can explain to you how I escaped the maze. I have done so. Can you explain to me—describe to me—how you walked through that wall?”
    â€œYes. I can explain it,” answered Zed. “Everything that happens—everything that we do—stems from our thoughts. Consider physical pursuits: if we want to reach for a piece of cheese, our thinking directs our body to move toward the cheese. Although our thoughts and body are not physically connected, the body reacts because the mind
insists
it is possible to move the body in specific and meaningful ways. Watch a newborn mouse and you will see that such conviction is not something we are born with, but something we must cultivate through sustained practice and reflection. It’s the same with our other pursuits—those that are notphysical. If we focus on solving a problem, there is no physical connection between the intention to accomplish this goal, the mental effort that follows, and the ultimate solution. What allows us to go from problem to analysis to solution is the insistence of the mind. This is what must be understood—what must be realized.
This
is the explanation, for all of it: there is no physical continuity anywhere, and
everything
stems from the insistence of the mind.”
    Max looked at him attentively, considering the words.
    Zed continued. “It doesn’t matter whether
you
think that you can walk through walls. After all, you found your own way to escape the maze. But you should realize that the same process was in play when you went farther than any other mouse you had ever encountered. Yourefused to accept the assumptions, the rules, and the constraints that others had accepted. You were able to have the thought—and to develop the conviction—that you could know more and do more. And so you went about doing it. I did the same. I challenged assumptions. I broke rules. I ignored constraints. I refused to believe that
anything
was a given. The result was inevitable. The maze ceased to exist.”
    â€œThen … it does not really exist?” asked Max. “For anyone?”
    â€œIt does. For most mice, it does. They define themselves—their very existence—in reference to the maze. You have said it many times yourself—you have described them as mice in the maze. That statement isn’t false, but it is dangerously misleading.”
    â€œHow so?” asked Max.
    Zed smiled.
    â€œYou see, Max, the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse.”

A MOUSE LIKE NO OTHER
    Max and Zed had sat together now, in silence, for almost an hour. Neither had more to say. Neither was in any rush to leave.
    Max was thinking—his mind was working to understand, to capture, all that Zed had just explained to him. He knew that it would be a long time before he could
realize
—to make real for himself—what he was beginning to comprehend. But the conversation had left him energized. He was happy.
    Zed was also thinking. He was thinking about the incredible