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