Out of the Maze Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Out of the Maze

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von Out of the Maze

Name: Out of the Maze
Rating: 4.6 (60 reviews)
Author: Spencer Johnson

Spencer Johnson

A Story About the Power of Belief

4.6 (60 Bewertungen)

23 Min.

Themen

Zielsetzung

Inhaltsübersicht

Out of the Maze
in 8 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how to not just cope with change, but embrace the possibilities it offers.

It may be a cliché, but it’s true: The only constant in life is change. From our personal relationships, circumstances and health to our jobs, careers and even the entire industry in which we work, we are in a continual state of flux. This is especially true of our professional lives, which are marked by ceaseless technological disruption and economic evolution.

In the face of change, we must choose between three options. The first is to try to go back to the way things were, which is usually impossible. The second is to stand still, which leads to stagnation and getting left behind. The third is to move forward and adapt, which is clearly the healthiest, most growth-oriented response – but also the most challenging.

So how do you adapt to change? In these blinks, we’ll be answering that question by means of a parable, a story that illustrates certain lessons which we’ll be drawing out in the course of unspooling the narrative.

Along the way, you’ll learn

the surprising power of our beliefs;
the secrets to changing them; and
the possibilities that new beliefs can open up to us.

It’s easy to take happiness or success for granted – and to feel lonely, empty, scared, mad or stuck when we lose them.

Our story begins with two miniature people named Hem and Haw, who live inside a maze. They spend their lives running through the maze together, looking for cheese to eat.

One day, they discover a place called Cheese Station C, where there’s a seemingly infinite supply of cheese. They have no idea where it comes from or how it materializes, but it just keeps showing up, day after day. So they stop exploring the maze and settle down at the station. They become complacent, and start feeling entitled to the cheese.

Then, suddenly, it disappears. Haw eventually goes off to search for a new supply, but he never returns. Hem stays behind, expecting the cheese to reappear.

It never does. Days go by, and Hem feels increasingly hungry, lonely and scared. Part of him also feels worried about what happened to Haw – but another part seethes over the possibility that Haw simply abandoned him.

Let’s pause and take a step back here. In the story, the cheese that Hem and Haw once feasted on is also a metaphor for happiness and success.

Thus, on a literal level, Hem and Haw are looking for cheese, which provides physical nourishment, while on a metaphorical level, they’re just like us: searching for fulfillment, which provides personal nourishment.

When we find it, we may take it for granted and feel like it belongs to us, much like Hem and Haw. But then things change, and it goes away. Some of us move on, like Haw. Others of us try to cling to what’s gone, like Hem.

This can leave us feeling isolated and empty, as well as anxious about or resentful toward the people who have moved on without us.

Change can be difficult to accept, because it represents the end of the world we knew – the one in which we’ve grown up and built our lives. Seeing others accept it can also be difficult as it might feel like they’re ushering in, and embracing, the end of that world.

As a result, many people, like Hem, refuse to move on, until reality finally compels them, as we’ll soon see.

If you lose a source of happiness or success, you may feel cautious or unhopeful, but other sources await discovery.

Eventually, Hem becomes so hungry that he feels compelled to leave Cheese Station C and search for new cheese. As he explores the maze, he comes across dark corners, and pokes his head around them to scan for cheese. He doesn’t want to venture into the darkness, because he’s afraid of getting lost. He never sees any cheese, so he keeps moving on.

He also passes what appear to be dead ends in the maze. These too seem fruitless, so he quickly moves on from them as well.

Change can rattle your self-assurance and self-esteem, and it can seem impossible to alter your beliefs to regain them.

As they explore the maze together, Hem and Hope find occasional morsels of cheese and apple, but only enough for them to barely survive. As they trudge on, Hem feels increasingly nostalgic about the old days, when he and his friend Haw were living in the abundance of Cheese Station C. He wishes things could just go back to the way they were.

In the aftermath of change, we too can fall prey to an unproductive form of nostalgia. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with fondly remembering the past, but fixating on how good things used to be can lead us to resent the present, as happens with Hem.

A belief is an idea we trust, and we can change our beliefs without changing who we are.

While thinking about Hope’s puzzling suggestion, Hem recalls the time that Haw left him behind in Cheese Station C to search out new sources of cheese. Haw tried to persuade him to come along, but he refused. Hem asks himself why this happened.

He realizes that Haw had a different way of viewing their situation than he did. Haw saw Cheese Station C as a dead end and he envisioned new possibilities in other parts of the maze. These notions existed only in his mind, so they were ideas – and he trusted them.

If we’re open to possibilities and take a leap of faith, we can believe in things that defy our limited imaginations.

While Hem is scratching his head about the nature of the new belief he should adopt, Hope makes a suggestion: maybe they should try to escape from the maze?

To Hem, this seems unthinkable. He has no conception of anything being outside the maze. To him, the maze is the entire world. Everything he’s ever seen has been inside the maze, and he can’t even imagine something outside of it.

We can choose to stop believing in unhelpful ideas, and we can also choose to persist in the face of disappointment.

Buoyed by his newfound belief in the power of believing in possibilities, Hem resolves to find a way out of the maze.

Up until now, he’s been avoiding all of the maze’s dark corners, which he’s been shying away from out of fear. But he now realizes that his fear and the avoidant behavior that results from it stem from yet another belief: A belief that the maze is dangerous.

With help from other people, we can find new sources of happiness and success in unknown places that might seem scary.

While rejoicing in his newfound reality, Hem had one final series of realizations that brought his journey full circle.

He remembered that at the beginning, right before he left Cheese Station C out of desperation to find new cheese, he wrote down three facts on a piece of paper, so he could remember them. However, in the course of his journey, he found out that none of these facts were, in fact, true – that is to say, they weren’t facts at all! Instead, they were just yet another example of beliefs – in this case, false beliefs that were holding him back.

The power of belief applies to the historical, economic and personal levels of human life.

Both the negative and the positive powers of belief can be demonstrated with many examples that take place on a variety of levels of human life. We’ll end with a look at some of them.

Let’s start on the historical level. Consider the Titanic. When it launched, people believed it was unsinkable. As a result of this belief, the ship was not equipped with enough life boats. When the supposedly unsinkable ship did sink, more than 1,500 people lost their lives. Many of these people could have been saved if enough lifeboats had been at hand.

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von Out of the Maze sehen?

Kernaussagen in Out of the Maze

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in Out of the Maze?

Out of the Maze (2018) tells a simple but powerful story that illustrates important life lessons about adapting to change, both in our personal and professional lives. It’s a sequel to the author’s famous book Who Moved My Cheese (1998) which teaches us the importance of adapting to new realities. Here we learn more about the ways in which we can actually achieve that adaptation.

Wer Out of the Maze lesen sollte

People facing tough changes in their careers or personal lives
Believers in positive thinking who are looking for new paths forward
Skeptics who are willing to have their minds changed

Über den Autor

Spencer Johnson was an American physician who shifted from a career in medicine to a life of writing motivational books after he found them to be his true calling. He was the co-author of The One Minute Manager and the author of The Precious Present, Yes or No and, most famously, Who Moved My Cheese? The latter was a New York Times bestseller that sold more than 21 million copies in its first five years. Johnson died in 2017. Out of the Maze was published posthumously by his friends and family.

Kategorien mit Out of the Maze

Motivation & Inspiration

Ähnlich wie Out of the Maze

Who Moved My Cheese?

Spencer Johnson

An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life

11 min

4.5

Life Is in the Transitions

Bruce Feiler

Mastering Change at Any Age

27 min

4.6

The One Minute Manager

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Increase Productivity, Profits and your own Prosperity

A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment

A Path to a Meaningful Life

How to Harness Change to Make It Work for You

An Action Plan for Embracing Change, Adapting Fast, and Future-Proofing Your Career

The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

17 min

3.6

Live Life in Crescendo

Stephen R. Covey and Cynthia Covey Haller

Your Most Important Work is Always Ahead of You

18 min

4.6

Why Nations Fail

Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson

The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

The secret methods to getting what you want

What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know

The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement

Redefine Everything. Find Yourself First

20 min

4.2

Stop Walking on Eggshells

Paul T. Mason & Randi Kreger

Taking Your Life Back When Someone You Care about Has Borderline Personality Disorder

18 min

4.8

I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t)

Brené Brown

Making the Journey From “What Will People Think?” to “I Am Enough”

15 min

4.4

Emotional Intelligence

How to Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life

A Guide for Occupants

An examination of the amoral game and techniques of seducers

Create a Life You Really Love with Less Stress and More Flow

Observations on the Nature, Theory and Strategy of War and Combat

20 min

4.3

The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living

33 min

4.7

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

24 min

4.7

The Black Swan

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Impact of the Highly Improbable

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming

Unlock the Secrets of Existence and Transform Your Perspective

14 min

3.7

The Coffee Bean

Jon Gordon and Damon West

A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change

The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8 A.M.)

20 min

4.5

How to Think Like a Philosopher

Peter Cave

Scholars, Dreamers and Sages Who Can Teach Us How to Live

366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature

How to Conquer Negativity and Thrive in a Chaotic World

Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

18 min

4.2

When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal

Brianna Wiest

Inspiration to Begin Your Journey of True Transformation

18 min

4.6

The Innovator’s Dilemma

Clayton Christensen

When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

14 min

4.4

Primed to Perform

Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor

How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation

Can You Learn to be Happy?

15 min

4.3

You Can Fix Your Brain

Dr. Tom O'Bryan

Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You've Ever Had

How the Masters of Private Equity Always Win

A New History of the World

How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

26 min

4.7

The Science of Getting Rich

Wallace D. Wattles

Your Master Key to Success

How to Work Through Conflict in Your High-Stakes Relationships

Reclaiming Life from Work

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do about It

17 min

4.3

When to Rob a Bank

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

...and 131 more warped suggestions and well-intended rants.

19 min

4.1

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.