I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. like 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 person in this room seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, because you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking little bit 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 to the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will my gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you a secret mission too. Your mission is to figure out how you want to spend your seven and a half minutes. And I think you should do something with them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I what she wants us to do with those 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 time playing games. example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose that we spend 21 billion hours a week, as a planet, playing games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited that I have heard from people all over the world I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great all, but on your deathbed, are you really going to you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is pervasive — that games are a waste of time that will come to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere I go. For example, story: Just a few weeks ago, this cab driver, 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. Imagine getting to end of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, want to take this problem seriously. I want games to be force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers regret the time they spent playing, time that I them to spend. So I have been thinking about this question a lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the time we playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there is some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who care of us at the end of our lives, issued a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to with you today — the top five regrets of dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. three: I wish I had let myself be happier. 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, instead what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told one of hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing games,” but when I hear these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t but hear five deep human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, wish I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d spent time with my family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, we that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study Brigham Young University School of Family Life reported that who spend more time playing video games with their have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of of people use social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent from the University of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. help us stay connected with people in our social network that we would otherwise distant from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 of online game play a 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 we might become. You see that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five now to document how playing a game with an avatar changes how we think and act in real life, making us more courageous, ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led life true 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 question mark. We’re going to come back to one.
But in the 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 a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But I did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. started two years ago, when I hit my head 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. My doctor told me that 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, writing, no video games, no work 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 be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal 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 going get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and so that I started to legitimately fear for my life, which is the time that said to myself after 34 days — and I will never forget moment — I said, “I am either going to myself or I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the of games for more than a decade that when we play a game — and this is the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out to others for help. I wanted bring these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, the first thing I did as a slayer was call my twin sister — I have identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a to heal my brain, and I want you to play me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, together we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on my 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 game was that simple: a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a couple days of starting to play, fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it the hardest year of my life by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, while I 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,” I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from all over the world who were adopting their own identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were it 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 me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked feeling better understood by their friends and family. And 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, is going on here? I mean, how could a so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way would have believed it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some people get and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The game was helping us what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. We usually 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 springboard to unleash best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the 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 myself better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and purpose 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 essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets of dying. Now this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic 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 way to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having hit your head in the first place? That would good, right?
I wanted to 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 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 experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them up together right now. Here’s we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This where you earn the seven and a half minutes bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to do successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, or your hands into fists, raise them over your head high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, like the people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. is worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number thing you can do to boost your physical resilience is to 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 and brains.
Everybody for your next quest? I want you to snap your exactly 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting down from 100 with your counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s worth +1 mental resilience, means you have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: of the room, fate’s really determined this for you, here are the two options. If you’re inside, find window and look out of it. If you’re outside, find a window and in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, 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 see what got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, one more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re 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 provoke powerful, positive like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. you can manage to experience three positive emotions for one negative emotion over the course of an hour, day, a week, you dramatically improve your health and ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my favorite trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or someone a quick thank you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. I love it! right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more strength from friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social resilience is gratitude. is even better.
Here’s one more secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for seconds dramatically raises the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means all of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want to help each other. will linger during the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, have successfully 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 get to share one more little bit of science you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these types of resilience — 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 for more than an hour at a time, if you reaching out to one person you care about every single day, if you are tackling tiny goals boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy in the U.S. the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies that you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So every year that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re actually .128 more years of life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 minutes of life, which means every single day, you earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour you are boosting your four types of resilience, like we just did together, you are 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are all yours. totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You have your special mission, your secret mission. How are going to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You use your first wish to wish for a million wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts you touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going to earn more minutes.
And the good is, you can 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 will have built up the strength and to lead a life truer to your dreams. And 10 extra years, you might even have enough time play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)