I’m a gamer, so I like to goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going try to increase the life span of every single in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math to that it is possible. It won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my gift to if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have secret mission too. Your mission is to figure out you want to spend your extra seven and a minutes. And I think you should do something unusual them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants us do with those minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. this is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a of time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I have from people all over the world since I gave that talk, this: Jane, games are great and all, but on deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more time Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are a of time that we will come to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were town for a game developers’ conference, turned around and said — I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting the end of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want take this problem seriously. I want games to be a force good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret time they spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So I been thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it out there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who care of us at the end of our lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently regrets that people say when they are literally on their deathbeds. that’s what I want to share with you today — the top five regrets the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. two: I wish I had stayed in touch with friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told one of the workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing video games,” but when I hear these top regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear deep human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d spent more time with my family, with kids when they were growing up. Well, we know that games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School of Family reported that parents who spend more time playing video with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent from the University of Michigan showed that these games incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the groundbreaking trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a was enough to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can see in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research five years now to document how playing a game with an avatar changes how we think and act in real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not others expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re to come back to this one.
But in the meantime, you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be talking to about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting die.
Now let me tell you that story. It started two years ago, when hit my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t properly, and after 30 days, I was left with symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that in order heal my brain, I had to rest it. So had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For me that meant reading, no writing, no video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to in three, and it happened to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, want to die.” It said, “You’re never going to get better.” said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so and so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will never forget moment — I said, “I am either going to myself or I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the psychology games for more than a decade that when we play a — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to out to others for help. I wanted to bring gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became new secret identity, and the first thing I did as a slayer was call my sister — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and want you to play with me.” This was an way to ask for help.
She became my first ally in game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together we identified battled the bad guys. Now this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This anything I could do on even my worst day feel just a little bit good, just a little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking around block just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a couple days of to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It felt like miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for than a year, and it was the hardest year of my life by far. But even when I had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next the game surprised me. I put up some blog posts and videos online, how to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not wants to be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, started hearing from people all over the world who were adopting their own identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their videos that the game helping them in the same ways that it helped me. They talked feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better by their friends and family. And they even talked feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though were tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m to myself, what is going on here? I mean, could a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if it hadn’t for me, there’s no way I would have believed was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after a event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The game helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists know that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead lives.
Here are the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and purpose in life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct of the top five regrets of the dying. Now is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without trauma, without having to hit your head in the first place? would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There are kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and are scientifically validated activities that you can do every day build up these four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need trauma to do it.
I could tell you what these four types of strength are, I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we start building them up together right now. Here’s what we’re going do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where you earn the seven a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you do it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: up and take three steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over your head as as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like the doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 resilience, which means that your body can withstand more and heal itself faster. We know from the research the number one thing you can do to boost your physical is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every second that you are not sitting still, you are improving the health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for next quest? I want you to snap your fingers 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t give up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the counting down from 100 interfere with your counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the time I’ve ever seen that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. that’s worth +1 mental resilience, which means you have mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from the research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 seven is actually a scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So good job. number three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s really this for you, but here are the two options. If you’re inside, find a window and look of it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or a quick YouTube or Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do on your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them the screen. So, what do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. Baby dolphin baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, one more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re clapping that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just feeling there plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the ability to powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative over the course of an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. this is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s favorite SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for seconds, or send someone a quick thank you by text, email, or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep up. I love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social resilience gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more secret for you: someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want to each other. This will linger during the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my to give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one little bit of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still for more than hour at a time, if you are reaching out to one person care about every single day, if you are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that math showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you add 10 years of life by boosting your four types resilience. So every single year that you are boosting four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour that you are boosting your types of resilience, like we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your special mission, secret mission. How are you going to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s suggestion. These seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You use your first wish to wish for a million more wishes. clever, right? So, if you spend these seven and a minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts in touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling a challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going to more minutes.
And the good news is, you can going like that. Every hour of the day, every of your life, all the way to your deathbed, which now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. when you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of those top five regrets, because will have built up the strength and resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. with 10 extra years, you might even have enough to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)