I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for talk: I’m going to try to increase the life of every single person in this room by seven 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 little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because it out — I have math to prove that it possible. It 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 be my gift to you if I’m in my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. Your mission to figure out how you want to spend your extra seven and a half minutes. And think you should do something unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be to yourself, I know what she wants us to do with those minutes, wants us to spend them playing games. Now this is totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a habit of encouraging people spend more time playing games. For example, in my TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, as planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a 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 I gave talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, but on deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more time Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are waste of time that we will come to regret — that hear it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: Just a few ago, this cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were in town for a developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting the end of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take problem seriously. I want games to be a force good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret time they spent playing, time that I encouraged them spend. So I have been thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this surprise you, but it turns out there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. workers, the people who take care of us at the end of lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently expressed 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 worked hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: 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 a life true to my dreams, instead of what expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told one of the workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing video games,” when I hear these top five regrets of the dying, can’t help but hear five deep human cravings that games actually us fulfill.
For example, I wish 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 has family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School Family Life reported that parents who spend more time video games with their kids have much stronger real-life with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay in daily contact real-life friends and family. A recent study from the of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help stay connected with people in our social network that would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. 30 minutes of online game play a day was enough to dramatic boosts in mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to my true 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 ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for years now to document how playing a game with an idealized avatar how we think and act in real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more to our 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 a Super Mario question mark. We’re going to come back this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is game designer to 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 recently did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now me tell you that story. It started two years ago, when hit my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and 30 days, I was left with symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told that in order to heal my brain, I had to rest it. So I had avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, 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 ideation is common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and it happened to me. My brain telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never going to get better.” 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 that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will never forget this — I said, “I am either going to kill myself I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why 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 challenges with creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely reach out to others for help. I wanted to these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery called 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 an twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game heal my brain, and I want you to play me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, together we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected and power-ups. This was anything I could do on even worst day to feel just a little bit good, just little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking the block just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. even with a game so simple, within just a couple days of starting play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more a year, and it was the hardest year of my by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even while I was in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with game surprised me. I put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from people all over the who were 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 helping in the same ways that it helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. talked about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And even talked about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, though they were tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at time, I’m thinking to myself, what is going on here? I mean, how a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, in 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 there’s some science here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s was happening to us.
The game was helping us what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists know that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things that with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I closer to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? 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 regrets.
But how does it work? How do you get trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a way to get all benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your in the first place? That would 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 scientifically validated that you can do every day to build up these four kinds of resilience, you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could tell you what four types of strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start 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 seven a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. you have to do is successfully complete the first SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have confidence you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. 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 body can more stress and heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number one thing you do to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all takes. Every single second that you are not sitting still, you are actively the health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your quest? I want you to snap your fingers exactly 50 times, 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 interfere with your counting 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the 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 scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without up, even one as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So job. Quest number three. Pick 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 look of it. If you’re outside, find a window and in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image search “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see 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 just feeling is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel looking baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret the 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 your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send someone a thank you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. I love it! All right, everybody, that +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, community. Now, a great way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch 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 that of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like want to help each other. This will linger during the break, take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have completed your 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 more little bit science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive ratio, if you are never sitting still for more than hour at a time, if you are reaching out to one person you about 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 I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy in the U.S. and U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know from more 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four 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 of life, 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every single day, are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single that you are boosting your four types of resilience, like we did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, seven and a half minutes are all yours. You 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 a half minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can your first wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if 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 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 going like that. Every hour of the day, every of your life, all the way to your deathbed, will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when you get there, more likely, you will not have any of those top five regrets, because you will have up the strength and resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. And 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to play a few games.
Thank you.
(Applause)