The Door Was Never Locked

What Houdini taught me about the prisons we build in our own minds

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Harry Houdini could escape from anything. Handcuffs, straitjackets, locked trunks underwater. The man was a master of impossible escapes.

Except once.

The story goes that Houdini spent hours trying to pick a lock that wouldn't budge. Sweat pouring down his face, his famous fingers working every angle, every technique he'd perfected over decades. Nothing. The lock wouldn't give.

Finally, exhausted and defeated, he leaned against the door.

It swung open.

The door had never been locked.

I've been thinking about this story today because I'm starting to suspect most of us are Houdini in that cell. Frantically working to escape prisons that exist only in our heads.

What if the door is already unlocked?

What if this weekend isn't about hustling harder or cramming more productivity into 48 hours? What if it's not about creating some miracle with the scraps of time medicine leaves us?

What if breakthrough is simpler than we think?

One email. One phone call. One Google search. One page written.

What if you're not trapped by the system as much as you think you are? What if you've been so focused on the doors that seem locked – the attending who won't listen, the schedule that owns your soul, the loans that feel insurmountable – that you're missing the open window? The gap in the fence? The door that's been unlocked this whole time?

Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is redirect just a fraction of the energy we've been spending on survival and point it toward something that matters to us. Not everything. Not perfection. Just enough to try the handle.

What if you're one simple, imperfect step away from breakthrough?

Today’s encouragement is more of a question than an answer.

But sometimes the best thing we can take into our weekends is a question that shifts everything – like turning on a light in a dark room so we can finally see what we've been tripping over.

The door might already be unlocked.

Maybe it's time to stop picking and start pushing.

But here's what I've learned about doors that were never locked, and why we keep trying to pick them anyway...