During the summer of 2000, I began an eighteen-month, in-depth study of the highest grossing blockbusters produced during the 90's. My goal was to comprehend what compels people to spend their money at the box office. Why? Because, as a screenwriter, I wanted a piece of that billion-dollar industry. And what better way to learn how to write a screenplay than by studying successful movies.

I was certain that every great film had underlying mechanics at play and I was determined to be the first to discover them. I wanted to know to what, specifically, the audience responded. After eighteen months of dedicated movie watching, I found the answers.

My commitment to film study was pretty intense at that time. I worked only two or three days a week which was enough to pay my rent, pay the utilities, and buy a few groceries. The rest of my time, I watched movies. Sometimes five a day. I watched several over a hundred times each. While I watched these films, I would dictate every action and every bit of dialogue from each character. I would later review these notes and try to decipher why was this movie a success? Why was this one a hit and that other one a dud? Eventually I did discover what makes a great movie great, and what I learned also applied to life.

There are seven moments in life that matter the most to us. Once you understand these seven moments and actively appreciate them when they occur, you will instantly elevate your enjoyment of life. These moments have always been right in front of us, yet nobody has ever brought them to our attention.

You don't need money to live a fulfilling life. In fact, you don't need a job. You don't need a wife, a husband, or a family. You don't even need a car. A fulfilling life has nothing to do with these things.

I imagine some of you are already doubting me ...but I'll prove it. Have you ever experienced a day where you finally came home and slumped into a recliner at the end of a long, busy day and thought to yourself, ?Wow?.what a great day!?? Then you went to bed entirely content and ?maxed out? from the day's events? Everyone has felt that way at one time or another, yet not everyone has the same possessions. You felt great because of what you experienced over the course of the day, not because of what you own, your status symbol, or how much money you earned. The experiences themselves gave you that sense of contentment.

The seven moments are easy to comprehend. At first you might not believe how easy it is to use them to enhance your daily life. Over time, however, you will prove to yourself that these moments are occurring every single day. You are already experiencing them?everyone is. All I'm going to do is show you how to recognize them. Expose them. Once you realize what they are, you will inevitably realize how powerful they are, all seven of them; and then you can immediately improve the quality of your life.

Sedated

I've been sedated for a large portion of my life. If you're an American, chances are high that you are too. In fact, I'd liken us Americans to zombies. The walking American dead. Our human spirit has been lulled to sleep. We seek external visual nourishment for our human spirit rather than experiencing it firsthand for ourselves.

The vast majority of us go to work every day. We have our morning routines, our lunch time rituals, and our evening relaxation at home before we go to bed, all this so we can get up and do it all over again. Most people will never escape the daytime work environment. As you will read later in this book, work is an excellent source of nourishment for the human spirit. But what do we do with our time after work?

Television

When we get home from work, most of us plop down on the couch and turn on the television to watch actors live a simulated life that is more enriching than our own. We follow these television dramas, comedies, and mysteries because they are feeding our human spirit better than we are feeding ourselves. We live through television. What is inside these television shows that appeals to us? What is missing in our own lives?

Sports

We attach ourselves to great athletes. We admire them. We cheer for them. We follow their careers and debate over who is the better competitor. We watch these superstars compete all season long, and then we get excited over ?the big game? when the best players battle against each other for the championship title. What are they doing that compels us to watch? What can we do to satisfy this need of ours by changing the things we do every day?

Video Games

The video game craze is stronger than ever. According to The Entertainment Software Association, the average game player spends 23.4 hours a week playing video games. That's a lot of time spent in front of the computer or television. For the rest of Americans that don't, it's very hard to understand why kids (and adults) devote so much of their life to video games.

Watching television programs, playing video games, or following an athlete's career are perfect examples of neglecting our own human spirit. We are no longer actively participating in our own lives and have become spectators of other people living a simulated life. We are satisfying our needs by watching someone else live the moments that human nature requires us to experience. I have not had cable television for over five years. I have no need for it. If I need the news, I get it from the internet; or I buy a newspaper. My life is filled with the seven moments that I generate in real life, rather than watching someone else live the seven moments on a television show.

If indeed we are asleep and neglecting our own personal involvement in life, how can we get back on track? How can we start experiencing life instead of watching someone else live?

By sharing what I have learned, I am positive that you will be able to increase your daily enjoyment of life by making new choices throughout your day. You can immediately start generating these moments within your own life. At the same time, you can decrease the amount of time you spend watching someone else live. Believe me, life is far more interesting when you experience the seven moments firsthand.

Read this book. Put its principles into action. I promise you it will be a painless experience. It doesn't matter who you are, where you live, or how much money you have. You can be broke. You can be homeless. You can be a bored gazillionaire. You can be stuck in a dead-end job working 40 hours a week with debt over your head and no hope for financial freedom for another forty years. Awakening your human spirit and feeling alive again can happen in the next few hours. This book will show you how. Start now, and start living again.

The next part of this article series is titled, How To Improve Your Quality of Life by using the Seven Moments - Moment #1.