I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. I special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going try to increase the life span of every single in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a little skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have to prove that it is possible. It won’t make sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to the 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 out how you to spend your extra seven and a half minutes. And I think should do something unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t 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 us spend them playing games. Now this is a totally assumption, given that I have made quite a habit of people to spend more time playing games. For example, in my first Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, as planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number one comment that I have heard from people all over the world since gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, but on your deathbed, are really going to wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea so pervasive — that games are a waste of time we will come to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were in town a game developers’ conference, turned around and said — I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. getting to the end of your life and regretting all time.”
Now, I want to take this 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 been thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re on deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, people who take care of us at the end of our lives, recently a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want share with you today — the top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed in with my friends. Number three: I wish I had myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had courage to express my true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life true my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as know, no one ever told one of the hospice workers, “I I’d spent more time playing video games,” but when hear these top 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 time with family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, we know that playing games together tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University of Family Life reported that parents who spend more time playing video games with their kids have stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille or With Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends family. A recent study from the University of Michigan showed that these are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, 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 for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day enough to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term increases happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version who we might become. You can see that in this alter ego portrait by Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been research for five years now to document how playing game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, and what others expected 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 to this one.
But the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell that story. It started two years ago, when I hit my head and got 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, had to rest it. So I had to avoid everything triggered my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no work email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where this going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and it happened to me. brain started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and will never forget this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew researching the psychology of games for more than a decade that when we play game — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out to others help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this 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, and I you to play with me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was anything that could trigger symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. also 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. Things like my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking around the just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But with 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 like miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. lasted for more than a year, and it was 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 the game surprised me. I put some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from people over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their videos that game was helping them in the same ways that helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better 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 on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial so powerfully in such serious, and in some 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 and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually about. We 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 springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a sense of meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? should, because the top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially direct opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? It that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a life fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a 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 I learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are validated activities that you can do every day to build up these four 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 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 you have to do is successfully complete the four SuperBetter quests. And I feel 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, them over your head as high as you can for five seconds, go! right, I like the people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. is worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your body withstand more stress and heal itself faster. We know from research that the number one thing you can do to boost physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every second that you are not sitting still, you are improving the health of your heart, and your lungs brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want 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 the people 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. done, everyone. Now that’s worth +1 mental resilience, which means have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. know from the scientific research that willpower actually works like muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your fingers 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated way 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, find a window and out of it. If you’re outside, find a window look in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what got. Baby dolphin 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 there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have 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 emotions for every one negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, 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 you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep up. I love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 resilience, which means you actually get more strength from friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social 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 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 advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my to give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one more bit of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four types resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. this is true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still for than an hour at a time, if you are 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 expectancy 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 boosting your four of resilience. So every single year that you are your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 more days life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 of life, or every single hour that you are boosting your types of resilience, like we just did together, you earning 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half are all yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your mission, your secret mission. How are you going to these 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. clever, right? So, if you 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, even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going earn more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going like that. hour of the day, every day of your life, all way to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of top five regrets, because you will have built up the strength and resilience to a life truer to your dreams. And with 10 years, you might even have enough time to play a more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)