One of the questions I often get asked is, “What is a WOW! Moment?” On Polly Campbell’s “Simply Said” podcast, I defined it as the things that take you out of your routine. The unusual occurrence or item that makes you stop, notice, feel, and experience the world in a new way.

Tamara V., a multi-sensory creative event coordinator in Paris, has a great definition of WOW! Moments. In a post on LinkedIn, she calls them “the moment where something you didn’t think was possible (either just in your world or you just didn’t know it existed) becomes real. And it opens your mind, even for just a moment, to the question… What else might be possible?”

I love this description because we’re often stuck in what we know is already possible. In certainty. Removing the guardrails and being open to the unknown and unexpected can be exhilarating.

I asked ChatGPT, “What is a WOW! Moment?” It replied: “A ‘WOW! Moment’ is a colloquial expression used to describe a moment of astonishment, amazement, or awe-inspiring surprise. It is a point in time when something unexpected or extraordinary happens, leaving a deep and memorable impression on someone.”

Pretty good for a bot. Then I asked, “Have you ever had a WOW! Moment?” The response: “As a machine learning model created by OpenAI, I don’t have personal experiences or emotions, so I don’t have the capability to have WOW! Moments or any other subjective experiences.”

The most interesting phrase in the AI tool’s response is that it doesn’t have subjective experiences. That means that WOW! Moments are whatever you define them to be. They’re yours and yours alone. While some might feel universal, such as the birth of a baby or winning the lottery, the beauty of these moments is that you get to choose what makes you say “WOW!”

So, what is a WOW! Moment? It’s whatever you decide it is. The only catch is that you notice and acknowledge it.