If you’ve never seen any episodes of the old TV series, Twilight Zone, do yourself a favor and check ’em out. The show ran from late 1959 to around June of 1964. And I only bring it up because of an episode I remembered yesterday. Of course, I was too young to see the original shows. But one of the reruns was an interesting take on making time stand still. In Twilight circles it’s known as the stopwatch episode.
All you need is the right stopwatch and some ingenious ideas.
The main character, in the Twilight Zone episode I’m talking about, was known as Mcnulte. And he’s one of those guys nobody likes but nobody actually hates either. You know the kind. Everybody knows who he is. But most of them wish they didn’t have to talk to him. Because he’s a big idea guy with no follow through.
Well, anyway…McNulte has a particularly bad day. And he finishes it out by sitting at a table with a guy who gives him a stopwatch. But as he quickly finds out, this is no ordinary watch. Because with a click of button McNulte can stop time for everybody but him.
Now, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what a great advantage it would be to stop time. Right?
And so Mcnulte thought, too.
In fact, he thinks it’s such a big deal, he tries to get his former boss to hire him back because of his new super power. But he gets the boot. And he finally decides to use his magic watch to rob a bank. Yeah, totally makes sense, right? If no one wants your big ideas, your next best bet is to rob a bank.
Well, Mcnulte goes to the bank, stops everyone in their tracks, gets in the vault, and loads a cart with moolah. It’s all going according to plan. He even stops at one guy’s desk and grabs one of his big, Cuban cigars. But then, as he’s backing the cart through one of the office gates, he drops the stopwatch.
And guess what happened.
Oh yeah, you’re ahead of me. It broke. And he couldn’t get it to work no matter how hard he tried.
The rest of the episode deals with Mcnulte going to all his usual hangouts in hopes somebody, somewhere, would be able to move. And talk to him. But there was no one. And he finally runs out yelling for someone, anyone, to “Say something! Help!” Then, you hear the voice of Rod Serling, the show’s creator, narrate the ending with…
“Mr. Patrick Thomas McNulte, who had a gift of time. He used it, and he misused it. Now, he’s just been handed the bill. Tonight’s tale of Motion and Mcnulte. In the Twilight Zone.”
OK, maybe there’s a lesson in there for you. But the main thing I want to share is how you don’t have to stop time in order to manage it. You couldn’t anyway. Because this isn’t the Twilight Zone. It’s real life. But you CAN leverage time. And that’s a much better way to get your business in a “Zone” most business owners will never reach.
If you feel like time management is one of your biggest problems, I bet it’s not. And my RondaReady system can show you how your problem is almost surely something else altogether.
If that sounds like something you’d wanna know more about, book a free 30 minute call with me. And together let’s see if my system is right for you. Because I truly do wanna help you…
Stay Ready,
Ronda