"Life" - The Ultimate Escape Room Experience

Ever felt trapped in your life circumstances? No matter what you do, you can’t find a resolution or a way out?

I was recently researching things to do with my family for the weekend and came across a Groupon for an escape room in town. I began reminiscing about the experiences we have already had as a family navigating escape rooms. At first, we were timid as we did not know what we were doing or how escape rooms worked. After getting in there, fumbling through the clues, and feeling absolutely inept, we finally figured out one small piece of the puzzle…yay! We were so proud of ourselves, yet still extremely overwhelmed. We still had no idea how all of these pieces came together…the clock kept ticking! We were definitely feeling the pressure!

We each attacked the multitude of clues in different ways pulling from our life experiences, formal education, but often times from a place of downright curiosity. At certain points in our journey, there was a little bit of arguing as the pressure and frustration built. After a while we began listening, teaching, explaining, guiding each other as we came to learn and effectively utilize each other’s strengths to bust us the heck out of that room! We began to encourage and cheer each other on as well as keep each other focused on the task at hand! The clock still ticking… we had reached a complete deadlock…we were stuck! We humbled ourselves enough to use one of our freebee clues for added guidance and momentum…it worked! We were back in the game! Puzzle after puzzle we solved until we finally escaped right before the clock ran out! The exhilaration of completing the challenge on top of the rush of endorphins running through our bodies as we strutted down the hallway to purchase our “We Escaped” T-Shirts lent itself to a great family bonding moment. A feeling we keep anchored in as we continue to seek out the thrills and challenges of higher level and different themed escape rooms. We now know more of what to expect. We have a better idea about how the rooms are put together and the types of challenges we might face. The most important thing we need to keep in mind is how to utilize each others strengths in order to work more efficiently in the higher level rooms.

As I reflected further about this process, I realized that our life has many parallels to this escape room experience. From the time we are born we acquire knowledge and skills to prepare us for the challenges we will face in the future. We more often find ourselves facing challenges without having yet acquired the skills necessary to navigate them. It is in these moments that life gets interesting. What do we do? At certain points we get frustrated, feel overwhelmed and get stuck. Some of us choose to give up and others choose to keep trying. We eventually learn that our current skills and knowledge will only take us so far. We need to access more knowledge and resources if we are to be successful at this level of life. We may take a course, read books, ask someone we trust for help, hire someone who is skilled at what we need or utilize a number of other resources to deal with the challenge at hand.

The individuals who excel in life have paid attention to the patterns unfolding time and time again as they live their lives. They have taken note that challenges continue to unfold at any and every stage of life. In order to have the best quality life you will need to get very efficient at solving life’s puzzles. You may be able to complete certain challenges on your own, but there may be others that you will need the assistance of others who have experience or knowledge addressing the challenge you are experiencing.

Let’s briefly discuss the unhealthy habit of ignoring life challenges in hopes that they disappear. Have you ever done this and had the problem actually disappear? This is a trick question because some people have been accustomed to others taking care of their responsibilities for them. Let’s be honest, we have all at some point benefited from this. What I really want you to acknowledge here though is that if you are going to build the life you desire, you must take ownership of the joy and challenges that arise. The days of waiting around for others to problem solve our hardships has come to an end and if we are going to mature and become fully capable in navigating life we must learn the skills that each one of these challenges offers us. These will be necessary skills we will need to continue building our best life.

The majority of the time, when we do not face our challenges they have the tendency to get larger and more complex. That little leak goes from being a minor repair to requiring a complete restoration. This now is the time clock factor in the escape room. The one major factor that elevated that sense of pressure and anxiety to solve the puzzles. At times this pressure can feel so overwhelming that we quit and at other times we can use that pressure to get more focused to push through. You may not know the skills necessary to complete the job. This causes you to stall in problem solving it. As you wait in a state of inaction the issue gets worse. You wait until it gets so bad that it can no longer be ignored. You finally call a plumber or handyman to address the issue. Why did it take so long to take action? At some point, the problem got so big that we had no choice but to act. Your lack of skill was no longer a factor, and you were forced to get resourceful. Did you suddenly acquire the skill to fix the leak? No, you paid someone who had the skills to do so. You got resourceful! In this scenario, you did not have to increase your knowledge to handle the issue. In other situations, you might need to learn new skills because you will need them to handle more challenges in life or they may be required for you to be able to build joy into your life. Maybe the thing that kept you from problem solving the leak was that speaking to others is uncomfortable. This is a skill that must be practiced, and it will lead to your overall life satisfaction when you feel confident in your abilities. The only way to grow your abilities is to practice it over and over again.

Back to the Escape Room…do you have any idea how many times we all did the same things repeatedly even when we knew it was not working in hopes for a different outcome? At some point we realized we had to change our approach or perspective to handle the challenge. This approach was reinforced more times than not in inch worming towards our overall goal. Does this mean that it was easy? Nope, but we refused to give up and we helped nudge one another when we were in these loops.

If you had the opportunity to look at your life as an escape room, what would you do differently based on this post? If you would like a bit more guidance feel free to access the download below.

What is your goal?

Where are the challenges to achieving that goal?

What resources or skills do you already possess to handle the challenge?

Do you need to learn a new skill or ask for help to tackle the challenges?