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