Back in the '70s I loved to play the game, Mouse Trap. Little did I know, that Mouse Trap was really a Rube Goldberg machine: an overly engineered device or system (usually involving a chain reaction) used to accomplished a simple task. I can't begin to tell you the rules of the Mouse Trap Game because I don't think I ever played the game; my friends and I just opened the box and built the machine as fast as we could. We were mesmerised as we watched the chain of intricate events that began with the turn of a crank and ended with a red, plastic cage dropping on an unsuspecting plastic mouse. When the device worked it was amazing to behold! But often, a piece of the contraption would be a little bit out of alignment, or a rubber band would break, or someone would accidentally bump the table sending the little diver guy off his perch and into the barrel prematurely. But we'd keep assembling and adjusting and fixing (sometimes for over an hour) until it finally worked.
Trap the mouse.
Such a simple goal; such a complicated process.
Have you ever set out to accomplish a simple task and found later that you've assembled an apparatus that possesses the same complexity and the absurdity of the Mouse Trap Game? I do this all the time - at work, at home and even in my spiritual life. I build an elaborate interconnected network of people and meetings and forms and approvals and devices and passwords and reports. So much complexity with much opportunity for failure along the way … and then I wonder, "Why am I so busy? And why didn't I accomplish what I set out to do?"
I've been blessed to have had some great leaders, coaches, and mentors in my life that have helped me find ways to weed out complexity and get to the core of what I desire to really do. It involves asking myself two questions:
1) What do I really want to accomplish?
2) Is there a simpler, more direct way for me to get that done?
- Do I want to host a company picnic or do I want to strengthen our team?
- Do I want to join a gym or am I trying to feel better?
- Do I want to pray fifteen times a day or do I want to become closer to God?
The Mouse Trap Game happens when I lose focus on what I'm really trying to accomplish and I let the pathway to the goal, become the goal itself.
