I’m a gamer, I like to have goals. I like special missions secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going 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 than you would have otherwise, just because you watched talk.
Some of you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I math to prove that it is possible. It won’t make sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to the number the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my gift you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. mission is to figure out how you want to spend 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 them anyway.
Now, because I’m a 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, that 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 billion a week, as a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, the number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all over the world since I that talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, on your deathbed, are you really going to wish spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea so pervasive — that games are a waste of time that we will to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: Just 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 — “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 a force for good in world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time they spent playing, time that I encouraged to spend. So I have been thinking about this a lot 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 scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, people who take care of us at the end of our lives, recently issued report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say when they are literally on deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share with you today — top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I I hadn’t worked 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 to my true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as as I know, no one ever told one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d more time playing video games,” but when I hear these five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings that games help us fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t 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 playing together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Young University School of Family Life reported that parents who spend time playing video games with their kids have much real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay in contact with real-life friends and family. A recent study from the of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay with people in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if 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 conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a was enough to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can see in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years to document how playing a game with an idealized changes how we think and act in real life, making more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” Are games doing yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario mark. We’re going to come back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, is this game designer to be talking to us about regrets? And 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 die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell that story. It started two years ago, when I hit my and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was left with symptoms nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that in order to my brain, I had to rest it. So I to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For me meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In words — and I think you see where this is going — reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one three, and it happened to me. My brain started me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these became so persistent and so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, is the time that I said to myself after 34 — and I will never forget this moment — said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the psychology of for more than a decade that when we play a — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach to others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to 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 tell her, “I’m playing game to heal my brain, and I want you to with me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and we identified and battled the bad 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 worst day to feel just a little bit good, just a little bit productive. Things cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the game was simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a so simple, within just a couple days of starting to play, fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. 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 still in 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,” so renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing 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. people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and videos that the game was helping them in the same ways that helped me. They talked about 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 they were tackling the toughest challenge their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial intervene powerfully in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what call post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and happier lives.
Here are the top five things that with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my and family.” “I understand myself better. I know who really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does sound familiar? It should, because the top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event unlock our ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there 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 understand phenomenon better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, there are scientifically validated activities that you can do day to build up these four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to it.
I could tell you what these four types of strength are, I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them up together now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play a game together. This is where you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I 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, ready? This is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: up and take three steps, or make your hands fists, raise them over your head as high as you for five seconds, go! All right, I like the people 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 itself faster. We from the research that the number one thing you can to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that are not sitting still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, and lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want 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 counting 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 from the scientific research willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets stronger the more exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one 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 the options. If you’re inside, find a window and look out of it. you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or do a quick YouTube 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 we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s what 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 feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, we feel looking at baby animals, when you need most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion over course of an hour, a day, a week, you improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any you’re facing. And this is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my favorite trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send someone quick thank you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. I it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, means you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is better.
Here’s one more secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six dramatically raises the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s trust hormone. That means that all of you who shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want help each other. This will linger during the break, so take advantage the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to give you seven and half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one little bit of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 longer than everyone else. So this is true. If are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you never sitting still for more than an hour at 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 where that math I you earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy in the U.S. the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know from than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 of life by boosting your four types of resilience. every single year that you are boosting your four of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes life, or every single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are all yours. You earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your special mission, your mission. How are you going to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s suggestion. These seven 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, you spend these seven and a half minutes today doing something makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, puts you in touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling a 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. hour of the day, every day of your life, the way to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years than it would have otherwise. And when you get there, than likely, you will not have any of those top five regrets, because will have built up the strength and resilience to lead a truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have time to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)