Harry Houdini had a very special talent: he could open any complicated lock. He boasted that he could get himself out of any confinement within 60 minutes, and he never failed. That is, until, legend has it, a man in a small suburban city decided to challenge Houdini, wanting to embarrass him. A special-made box was built, with an extremely complicated lock and especially strong steel designed to trap Houdini. He took on this challenge, with everyone agreeing to the conditions he usually worked under: he could wear his own clothes, and no one could watch him.
Once he stepped in, the door was shut tight. Everyone’s back was turned toward the box. Thirty minutes later, a very focused Houdini was still trying to unlock the box. One hour later, he started to sweat. Two hours later, he still did not hear the little “tick” sound that opening a lock would produce. He was so exhausted that he leaned against the door and sat down. All of a sudden, the door opened.
The door was never locked. The incredibly intricate lock was really just a diversion.
You cannot unlock an unlocked door. Thus, there would have been no way for Houdini to hear the “tick” sound. But to Houdini, his heart was locked. His failure was a result of his concentration on the symbolic lock. His goal changed from surviving into just opening the lock. His goal in mind had been so set in stone; he completely ignored that it might not even have been locked. Houdini teaches us that oftentimes, we are so focused and set on our goals that we ignore the most basic approaches to accomplish them. Instead, we tend to overcomplicate things when they are really quite simple.
他为自己订下一个目标︰六十分钟之内，一定要从任何锁中挣脱出来。不过，条件是必须让他穿着特制的衣服，而且绝不能有任何人在旁边观看。
有一个英国小镇的居民，决定向胡迪尼挑战。他们制造了一个特别坚固的铁牢，还配置了一把非常复杂的锁，然后请胡迪尼来接受考验，看看他能不能顺利地从这个铁牢中脱身。
胡迪尼接受了这个挑战，穿上特制的衣服走进铁牢。所有的居民都遵守规定，不去看他如何开锁。
倒数计时开始，胡迪尼立即从衣服里拿出工具开锁，但是，时间一分一秒地过去了，他却始终打不开铁牢。
一小时过去了，胡迪尼还是听不到期待中锁片弹开的声音，他精疲力尽，靠着门坐下来，就在此时，牢门竟然顺势而开。
原来，牢门根本就没有上锁！而这个「逃生专家」，竟然被一把根本没有锁上的锁难倒了！
其实，人生中许多障碍和限制，都是我们自己造成的。本来很简单的一件事，就因为我们先在心中设置了障碍，才会复杂起来，并限制了发展。 』
Note:
The post is translated from the Chinese article-
http://mind-libur.blogspot.com/2012/06/blog-post_16.html
