We had been battling a particularly nasty demon for almost 90 minutes. Our first task was to gain access to the church he possessed. Then, after cleansing the church, we crawled through a tunnel and found his inner lair. In this secret cave deep below the church, we had to organize lasers in a certain way to activate a portal to send him back to hell – or so we thought. We found the perfect configuration for the lasers, started them, and then… nothing! Yikes – he was close to breaking through the bonds we had created and taking our souls. This was too much pressure, and nothing was working. We couldn’t understand as we’d banished several other demons before, and those lasers worked immediately.

Remembering lessons learned from past escape experiences, we realized that this was another time our experience was probably getting in the way. We had to step back and open our minds, pretending we had never sent a demon through a portal to hell. We then realized that we had to perform a series of four laser configurations before banishing the demon forever. We did so just before he broke his bonds, saving the world from his wrath.  Upon reflecting on the experience and how it related to our lives, we identified several times we had made assumptions at work and home based on our expertise in various areas and how that previous experience got in our way rather than helping us. Lesson learned – when feeling stuck, attempt a “beginner’s mind,” where you look at something with fresh eyes and break through the assumptions that keep you from progressing.

We found yet another deranged serial killer’s cabin in the woods (this is probably the 30^th or 40^th cabin we’ve found in our almost 1,000 adventures). This time, however, we would be the heroes if we succeeded as we discovered that he had kidnapped and trapped a few campers, and we were there to save them. We started going through the cabin to look for clues on where each camper was imprisoned and ways we could liberate them when we realized that the cabin had no air conditioning. It was getting more difficult as time ticked on to focus as we were hot and sweating. Since we were extremely uncomfortable, managing our emotions became difficult, and frustration levels ran high.

We successfully liberated the kidnapped campers; however, it was no easy task. We had to handle our own discomfort while also managing our emotions so we didn’t take our distress out on each other. In addition, while being uncomfortable and frustrated, we had to be patient with each other and not take things personally when one of us overshared our frustration with the situation. Yet another parallel with life is how important (and challenging) it is to manage ourselves internally and externally when we are emotionally charged and attempting to collaborate effectively with others. What are some ways that you manage your frustration when interacting with others?

On another adventure, we unexpectedly found ourselves in the dark. The experience started out exciting enough as we were in a tunnel excavating beautiful jewels before the dwarves returned. We were able to grab a few before we heard several dwarves approaching, and we had to exit by crawling through a newly opened side tunnel. Then, we found ourselves in complete darkness and with several challenges we needed to overcome before safely exiting the tunnel system. We became increasingly frustrated as we completed each challenge because they were tedious and sometimes outside our strongest skill sets. At one point, we had to mimic the sounds of a song by pulling on musical ropes to recreate the song. Neither team member is musically inclined, so this challenge was tiresome and infuriating.

Thankfully, we could overcome our frustration to accomplish the tasks and break free of the tunnels before the dwarves caught us. Upon review, we identified several parallels between our escape experience and life. Our experiences will not always be pleasant, sometimes leading to extreme frustration. Still, we must focus on moving through it, and things will eventually brighten up (sometimes literally as you leave the tunnel of frustration)!

It finally happened – something we have been warned about for years – the robots took control of humans. We were tasked on a secret mission to sneak into their headquarters, a company that started it all, and shut them down from the source. This was no small feat, as it became evident when we had trouble getting close to the building. Small and large drones patrolled around the entrance, and we found ourselves huddled in an abandoned van, trying to figure out how we could best get past them and onto the next challenge awaiting us. It appeared that the only way to distract the drones so we could reprogram them to patrol elsewhere was to get a device out in the open. When they spotlighted and scanned the device, it would reset their search parameters.

Time was ticking, so one team member decided to go for it and ran out into the open. They deftly dodged the spotlight while attempting to estimate where it would land next and rolled the device to several places until the spotlight finally hit it. The drones left, and we were able to turn our attention to breaching the door. We successfully thwarted the robots that day, but who knows what would have happened if our team continued to play it safe. Sometimes, we must take risks to accomplish our goals more quickly. What areas of your life are you playing it too safe?

We found ourselves in yet another serial killer’s lair. We started in a seemingly innocuous maintenance office, soon finding out that there was a secret entrance into the actual lair where the serial killer played out his sick fantasies. He wasn’t a very organized offender, as various bodies and body parts were strewn about the secret room. The atmosphere was quite immersive – we felt like we were in a movie. At one point, we encountered some bathroom stalls, one containing a chained-up body and the other filled to the brim with very realistic poop. Thankfully the immersive experience did not include smell. One partner is exceptional at yelling “not it” when these challenges present themselves, so the other was forced to dig through the poop to find a much-needed clue to help the team escape the lair unscathed.

Once the clue was located, the partner digging through the poop felt it was appropriate to throw some of it at the other, and a short poop fight ensued. Thankfully, the team could refocus after some laughs and escape with evidence before the serial killer returned. Escape rooms teach us so much about life. While this one, at least we hope, doesn’t get translated to literally throwing poop at those in your life during tense situations, it demonstrates how important a little humor and fun is when you are collaborating on a challenge in work or life.