Kenneth Chabert

So no, this was a hike.

And at 8,000 feet elevation, one quickly realizes Montana's oxygen just isn't real.

Midway through our hike, I can't remember what I said, but the woman grabs a fistful of snow, puts it in her mouth, and she starts to chew.

And my initial thought was, that was disgusting.

I would never touch anything that touches a New York City street.

But then I realized this was snow from Montana, and this was symbolic of the relationships Montanans have with their environment.

So towards the end of the hike,

This woman lays down in a bed of snow, and she moves her body in a way where it registers to me she's making a snow angel.

So after about 30 seconds, I decide to mimic.

And so I lay in this fresh bed of snow in Montana, I move my arms and my legs, and then it dawns on me.

I'm making a snow angel for the first time.

And of course, I've seen other people do it, and I've seen it on television before, but it was the first time I did it.

You see, I've coined the term powerful first experiences, or PFEs, as doing something you never thought you would do for the first time in a place that you never thought you would be in for the first time.

The main reason why I was in Montana in the first place was to give a talk about powerful first experiences, so it's only right that I would then have powerful first experiences in Montana.

Powerful first experiences are life-altering moments and experiences that change the way that we see ourselves and changes the way we see the world.

And they can be as expansive as skydiving out of a plane in France or as small as visiting a lake to meditate for the first time.

What matters is your imagination, your courage and your curiosity.

In the book Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, the authors reference what psychologists call the reminiscent bump, a phenomenon where older individuals are asked to think about their experiences where they tend to disproportionately talk about the experiences that happened roughly between the ages of 15 to 30.

Some researchers say this is the time in our lives where we experience the most novelty.

And there's a few theories why.