I’m a gamer, so I to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to to increase the life span of every single person in room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will seven and a half minutes longer than you would 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 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 you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you a secret mission too. Your mission is to figure how you want to spend your extra seven and a half minutes. And think you should do something unusual with them, because these are minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be to yourself, I know what she wants us to do with those minutes, she wants to spend them playing games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, given I have made quite a habit of encouraging people spend more time playing games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose that 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 I have heard from people all over the world I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, but on your deathbed, you 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, true story: Just a few ago, this cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were town for a game developers’ conference, turned around and — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting to the end of life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. I want games be a force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret 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 regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this 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 our lives, recently a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I to share with you today — the top five regrets the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: I wish had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had courage to express my true self. And number five: 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 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 five deep human cravings that games actually help fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d more time with my family, with my kids when were growing up. Well, we know that playing games has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young School of Family Life reported that parents who spend more time video games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille or With Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent study the University of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected people in our social network that we would otherwise grow from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here can’t help but think of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina that 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 the to express my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, our heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You see 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 and in real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not 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 to one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this designer to be talking to us about deathbed regrets? it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. It started two years ago, I hit my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, was left with symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. 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, no writing, no games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, caffeine. In other words — and I think you where this is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of it’s meant to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic 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, which is the time that I said to myself 34 days — and I will never forget this moment — I said, “I am going to kill myself or I’m going to turn this 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 tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, we’re more likely to reach out to others for help. wanted to bring these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and the first thing did as a slayer was call my twin sister — have an identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing game to heal my brain, and I want you to play with me.” was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on even worst day to feel just a little bit good, just little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or out of bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the was that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a days of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It felt a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it the hardest year of my life by far. But even I still had the symptoms, even while I was still pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with game surprised me. I put up some blog posts videos online, explaining how to play. But not everybody a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started from people all over the world who were adopting own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their videos that the was helping them in the same ways that it helped me. They about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better understood by their and family. And they even talked about feeling happier, though they were in pain, even though they were tackling the challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial intervene so in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have believed it 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 was helping us experience what scientists post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic event doesn’t us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top five that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand better. I know who I really am now.” “I a new sense of meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the top traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite 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 you get from trauma growth? Or better yet, is there a way to get all the of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your in the first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you can do every day to build up four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could you what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them together right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll a quick game together. This is where you earn seven and a half minutes of bonus life that promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I like you can do it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, or make hands into fists, raise them over your head as 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 worth +1 physical resilience, which means your body can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. know from the research that the number one thing you can do to boost physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you are sitting still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, and your lungs brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want you 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 the first 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 scientific research that willpower works like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without up, even one as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting from 100 by 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 determined this for you, but here are two options. If you’re inside, find a window and look of it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. do a quick YouTube or Google image search for “baby [your animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on screen. So, what do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. Baby and 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 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 secret from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience 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 tackle any problem you’re facing. And this is called the three-to-one positive ratio. It’s my favorite SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send someone a quick thank you by text, email, or 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 from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to boost resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more secret you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the level of oxytocin in bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like want to help each other. This will linger during break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. I get to share one more little bit of science with you. It turns that people who regularly boost these four types of — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than else. So this is true. If you are regularly achieving three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still for more than an hour a time, if you are reaching out to one person you care about every single day, you are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, will live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where math I showed you earlier 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 studies that you can add 10 years of life boosting your four types of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 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 that are boosting your four types of resilience, like we did 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 have your special mission, secret mission. How are you going to spend these minutes of 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 to wish for a million wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven and a half minutes today doing something that you happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts you in touch with someone you care about, even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re going to 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 your life, all the way to your deathbed, which now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when you get there, more likely, you will not have any of those top five regrets, because you will built up the strength and resilience to lead a life truer to dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even enough time to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)