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