We found ourselves trapped in separate jail cells (again!), this time in a medieval dungeon. We were on our fourth adventure that day and beginning to get tired and hungry. We had to communicate what was in each of our cells to come up with a code that would free us from the cells and take us into the next part of the adventure. We were failing miserably and getting a little frustrated with each other. Reminding ourselves of our learning about managing emotions while in escape rooms, we did our best to remain patient and attempt to communicate effectively.

One of us was able to break free from our cell as a secret door opened and gave us access to another room. The other broke free from the other cell, but they did not have a secret door, so found themselves locked outside of the additional room. The door had two locks on each side and what looked like morse code as a clue to open each lock. We spent a good ten minutes trying to find a morse code cipher to be able to open the doors until one of us took the time to count out the number of dashes and dots on each door. They surprisingly matched up to four words we found in our searches.

We were able to decipher the codes for the four locks, joining up to solve the final puzzle in the room to gain our freedom. The lesson for this room was a big one and an age-old one – Keep It Simple [Silly] (KISS). Because we were tired and hungry, we were overthinking pretty much everything and not stopping to consider the simplest possible solution. How often do we do this to ourselves in our lives? Especially when we are tired, hungry, and frustrated. Think of ways you can stop the overthinking and ask yourself how can I use the KISS principle in this situation?