Most Memorable Experiences Aren’t Random—they’re Deliberately Created

You step into the weekly team meeting, and the energy is as flat as ever: laptops open, everyone half-listening, the same agenda as always. Midway through, your mind drifts. It hits you that, although you’ve been with this team for years, barely anything stands out in memory. The faces are familiar, but the experiences are a blur.

Later, scrolling through photos on your phone, you notice a pattern: you remember vacations, graduations, maybe a wild party—but most days disappear in the fog of routine. You realize that waiting for chance to deliver a thrilling moment might mean waiting forever. The teachers who inspired you, the managers who truly left a mark, didn’t “get lucky”—they built those moments, consciously or not.

Small changes, you discover, can turn the ordinary into remarkable. A surprise celebration, a thoughtful note, or a group challenge breaks the flatness and becomes a memory. It’s not about grand gestures. It’s about spotting moments that deserve investment, then adding thought and energy to make them extraordinary.

Psychologists have shown that people don’t remember the average—they remember peaks, pits, and transitions. Crafting an experience means choosing to punctuate your story. If you want to live vividly, start building moments instead of drifting through days.

Pay attention to the areas of your life that feel routine—and pick one to upgrade. Zero in on a transition, milestone, or even a challenging time, and ask yourself how you could make it stand out. Maybe it’s a welcome gesture for a new teammate, an impromptu celebration for hitting a hidden milestone, or simply designing a moment that brings people together in a new way. Don’t overthink it—just choose one, boost the experience by doing something sensory or surprising, and see how the energy shifts. Try it this week and let yourself feel the difference.