Hi everyone,
I love the authors Dan & Chip Heath. Their books Made to Stick, Switch, & The Power of Moments have been a few of the most insightful books I enjoyed reading. Today, I will talk about the EPIC framework I learned from their book The Power of Moments which talks about designing moments that can turn into amazing memories we cherish forever. This email will act as part 2 of last week’s email on how to engineer an event or trip to be more memorable by using the peak-end rule.
The E.P.I.C framework states that we can create specific conditions in our lives that can help us create extraordinary moments that we will cherish forever. Because our brains are wired to remember certain things more fondly than others, we can use that to our advantage to create exceptional moments that shape how we look back at our recollections of life. If we use E.P.I.C, we won’t have to wait for these moments to happen to us. We can create them ourselves. Here is how (find more examples here):
E stands for Elevated:
Try to create moments that are different from your routine days such that they rise above the routine. If your regular day has a script (waking up, going to school, going to play, studying, watching tv, going to sleep, repeating), try to break it occasionally.
This can look like taking a different route one day while coming back from school with friends or saving money to treat your parents instead of the usual them buying you gifts during a holiday festival, or randomly getting flowers or cooking for your loved ones without any special occasion.P stands for Pride:
We love moments that capture us at our best when we feel achievement and courage. These moments generally come from winning awards or honors or getting a promotion.
Or you can create them by creating goals you stay true to climbing a summit, running a 5k, going to the gym regularly for 365 days, learning how to play an instrument & doing it for your loved ones.
You can also appreciate others more, express gratitude, or give compliments to create these for others. Basically, creating ways through which you can be proud of yourself or doing this for others can lead to deep fulfillment. This song by Mike Posner captures the sentiment beautifully.I stands for Insight:
Create experiences that change how you see or understand the world. They can shape your actions for life. This can happen during planned late-night hangouts with friends where you discuss important philosophies, values, or dreams that you hold in life or while reading books that are known to be insightful (for example: Man’s Search for Meaning, The Alchemist, etc.), or in moments of vulnerability shared with a loved one.This can happen when watching speeches from seniors (that can be me one day!) or when your role models share a story of failure. Reading more & listening more are 2 things we can do to ensure insightful moments.
C stands for Connection:
The moments that deepen our ties with others are indeed quite powerful & we can invest our time & effort to ensure we attend or organize them. That’s why shared meaningful ceremonies like marriages or graduation ceremonies are so memorable. That’s why communities that share a purpose or meaning & invest in these endeavors like ones created by sports teams or organized spiritual can be so strong & lasting. Investing in meaningful social relationships & taking the initiative to create shared meaning with these people hardly go wasted.
If you look back at some of your most memorable events in life, they have been a combination of a few of these elements of EPIC, like the last day of high school, or your 1st trip with friends, or when you tried bungee jumping, or when your father shared a life lesson, or when your sibling was born. Movies like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, portray beautifully how these EPIC moments can be life-defining.
By using a combination of some or all of the 4 elements mentioned above, the authors claim that we can create a series of amazing memories such that when we look back at our lives, we will feel fulfilled & grateful. I think the ideas mentioned here are pretty cool & worth trying. I’ve tried some of the 4 elements & they work! Do let me know if you ever try them.
Make beautiful memories,
Seeam
Here is a video of the author Chip Heath talking about how to design moments