While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive
moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and
connection. If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments
that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his
students would remember twenty years later? What if a manager knew how
to create an experience that would delight customers? What if you had a
better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children?

This
book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend
to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the
last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when
things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.” And why
our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our
youth.

Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives,
such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and
forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in
that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who
credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the
dinner table. (What was that simple question?)

Many of the
defining moments in our lives are the result of accident or luck—but why
would we leave our most meaningful, memorable moments to chance when we
can create them? The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.