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