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