The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

Self-understanding comes slowly. One of the few ways to accelerate it—to experience more crystallizing moments—is to stretch for insight.

many people believe they need to find their calling, as though it were a “magical entity that exists in the world waiting to be discovered.”6 She believes purpose isn’t discovered, it’s cultivated.

The heart of her strategy is practice. You identify situations where an ethical issue might arise. You anticipate the rationalizations you’ll hear for the behavior. Then you literally script out your possible response or action. And finally you practice that response with peers.

Barbara Fredrickson, one of the researchers who pioneered the “peak-end principle,” argued that the reason we over-weight peaks in memory is that they serve as a kind of psychic price tag. They tell us, in essence, this is what it could cost you to endure that experience again.

Our relationships are stronger when we perceive that our partners are responsive to us.

dramatize the problems: Ingesting feces. Struggling to use a software package. And once those problems became vivid in the minds of the audience members, their thoughts immediately turned to … solutions.

In organizations, mentorship can take a stronger form. High standards + assurance is a powerful formula, but ultimately it’s just a statement of expectations. What great mentors do is add two more elements: direction and support. I have high expectations for you and I know you can meet them. So try this new

“Just as an athlete practices his or her moves to commit them to muscle memory, the point here is to make voicing our values the default position,”

Purpose trumps passion.