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 to try to increase the life span of every person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you live seven and a half minutes longer than you would otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math to prove that it is possible. won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will my gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a mission too. Your mission is to figure out how you want to your extra seven and a half minutes. And I think you should do something unusual them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might thinking to yourself, I know what she wants us to do with those minutes, she wants to spend them playing games. Now this is a reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a habit of encouraging people to spend time playing games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I did that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so much time, fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from all over the world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games great and all, but on your deathbed, are you really going to wish you more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — games are a waste of time that we will come regret — that I hear it literally everywhere I go. example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were in town a game developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I quote — “I 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 force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to the time they spent playing, time that I encouraged to spend. So I have been thinking about this question a lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this may you, but it turns out there is actually some scientific research this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take 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. And that’s I want to share with you today — the top regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed in with my friends. Number three: I wish I had let be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no ever told one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more playing video games,” but when I hear these top regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I wish hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I I’d spent more time with my family, with my kids when they growing up. Well, we know that playing games together has family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School Family Life reported that parents who spend more time playing video games with their kids have much real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like or Words With Friends to stay in daily contact real-life friends and family. A recent study from the University of Michigan that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They us stay connected with people in our social network that we would otherwise distant 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 at East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play day was enough to create dramatic boosts in mood long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the 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 of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has doing research for five years now to document how playing a game an idealized avatar changes how we think and act in real life, us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and what others expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re going to back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is game designer to be talking to us about deathbed regrets? it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. It two years ago, when I hit my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t 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 heal my brain, I had to rest it. So I had to avoid everything that my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, work or email, no running, no alcohol, no 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 is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and happened to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, you want die.” It said, “You’re never going to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And voices became so persistent and so persuasive that I started to legitimately for my life, which is the time that I to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either to kill myself or I’m going to turn this into game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the psychology of games for than a decade that when we play a game — this is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more to reach out to others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and first thing I did as a slayer was call my sister — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — and her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and I want you to play me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my Kiyash joined next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This was I could do on even my worst day to feel a little bit good, just a little bit productive. like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of and 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 with a game so simple, within just a couple days of to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it was hardest year of my life by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even while was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened with the game surprised me. I put up some posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, started hearing from people all over the world who were adopting their secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, depression Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. I could tell from their messages and their videos that the was helping them in the same ways that it me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked feeling better understood by their friends and family. And they even about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though were tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking myself, what is going on here? I mean, how a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and in cases life-and-death, circumstances? I 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 here, too. Some people 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 about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. know 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 dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the 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 you get from trauma to growth? better yet, is there a way to get all the benefits of post-traumatic without the trauma, without having to hit your head in the first place? That be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There are four kinds strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are validated activities that you can do every day to build up four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need a to do it.
I could tell you what these types of 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 to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life I promised you earlier. All you have to do successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I like you can do it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. Here 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, I like the people doing both. are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress heal itself faster. We know from the research that the one thing you can do to boost your physical resilience 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 you to snap your fingers 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t give up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting down from 100 interfere with 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 the scientific research that actually works like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your 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. one: Because of the room, fate’s really determined this for you, but are the two 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 or image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or just shout out baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s what we 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 you have the ability to powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret from scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience positive emotions for every one negative emotion over the of 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 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 a quick thank you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. it up. I love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 resilience, which means you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is better.
Here’s one more secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the level 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 help each other. This will linger during the break, take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully my mission to give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share more little bit of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than else. So this is true. If you are regularly the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never still for more than an hour at a time, if you are reaching out one person you care about every single day, if you tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that can add 10 years of life by boosting your types of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re earning .128 more years of life or 46 more days life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour that are boosting your four types of resilience, like we just together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those and a half minutes are all yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You have your special mission, your secret mission. How are you going to these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a half bonus are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend seven and a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets 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 the good is, you can keep going like that. Every hour of day, every day of your life, all the way to deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when you there, more than likely, you will not have any of those top five regrets, you will have built up the strength and resilience to lead a truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)