I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special missions secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to try to increase the life span every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a 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, pay attention to the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will my gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, have a secret mission too. Your mission is to figure how you want to spend your extra seven and half minutes. And I think you should do something unusual with them, 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 us spend them playing games. Now 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 hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that have heard from people all over the world since I 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 is so pervasive — games are a waste of time that we will to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and were in town for a game developers’ conference, turned around and said — and quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting to the end of your and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. I want to be a force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. I have been thinking about this question a lot lately. we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there is actually scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care of us at end of our lives, recently issued a report on most frequently expressed regrets that people say when they are on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share with 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 touch with friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a true to my dreams, instead 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 time playing video games,” when I hear these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear deep human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I I 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 tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School of Family reported that parents who spend more time playing video games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships 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 stay in daily with 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 grow distant from, we weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the groundbreaking trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online 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 our true selves, most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. can see that in this alter ego portrait by Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing for five years now to document how playing a game with idealized avatar changes how we think and act in real life, us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a true to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left 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 worked in a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me you that story. It started two years ago, when I my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was 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. So had 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 other words — and I you see where this is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It to one in three, and it happened to me. My brain started me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re going 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 life, which is the time that I said to after 34 days — and I will never forget this moment — I said, “I am either to kill myself or I’m going to turn this 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 more creativity, more determination, more optimism, 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 called the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, the first thing I did as a slayer was call twin sister — I have an identical twin sister Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game to my brain, and I want you to play with me.” was an easier way to ask for help.
She my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. Now was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. also collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do even my worst day to feel just a little good, just a little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of and walking around the block just once.
Now the game was simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a couple of starting to play, that fog of depression and went away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That for more than a year, and it was the hardest year of my life by far. even when I still had the symptoms, even while I still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. I put up blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not wants to be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, started hearing from people all over the world who adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I tell from their messages and their videos that the game was them in the same ways that it helped me. talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about better understood by their friends and family. And they even talked feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though they tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at time, I’m thinking to myself, what is going on here? I mean, could a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and in some life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have believed it possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s was happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which not something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead lives.
Here are the top five things that people with post-traumatic say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, the top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets of dying. Now this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a event can unlock our ability to lead a life fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do you get from to growth? Or better yet, is there a way to get the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without to hit your head in the first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s I learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you can 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 a quick game together. This is where you earn the and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and take steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over your head as as you can for five seconds, go! All right, like the people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 physical resilience, means that your body can 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 single second you are not sitting still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, your lungs and 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 the people counting down from 100 interfere with your to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first time I’ve seen that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s worth +1 mental resilience, which means you have 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 tiny challenge without giving up, even one as 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. Quest 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 quick YouTube or Google image search for “baby [your animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or just shout 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 we got. Baby dolphin baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, one more. 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 ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If can manage to experience three positive emotions for every negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, week, you dramatically improve your health and your ability successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And this is the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my favorite SuperBetter trick, so keep up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s for six seconds, or send someone a quick thank you by text, email, or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. I love it! right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more 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, that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of you who shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want to help 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 and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get share one more little bit of science with you. It turns out that who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, and social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. this is true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive ratio, if you are never sitting still 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 to your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than else, and here’s where that math I showed you earlier in.
So, the average life expectancy in the U.S. and the U.K. 78.1 years, but we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that can add 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. every single year that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more of life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 minutes of life, which means every single day, you are 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 minutes life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are all yours. totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still your special mission, your secret mission. How are you to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s suggestion. These seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to wish for million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven and a half today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets physically active, or puts you in touch with someone care about, or even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re going boost your resilience, so you’re going to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, can keep going like that. Every hour of the day, every day of your life, all the way to deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it have otherwise. And when 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 lead life truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to play few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)