I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to to increase the life span of every single person 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 are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have to prove that it is possible. It won’t make much now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a secret too. Your mission is to figure out how you want to spend extra seven and a half minutes. And I think you should something unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, 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 time 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 billion hours, it’s lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, that number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all over the world I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, but on deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more time playing Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games a waste of time that we will come to regret — that I 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 game developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste life. Imagine getting to the end of your life and regretting that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. want games to be a force for good in the world. I don’t gamers to regret the time they spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So I have thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, may surprise you, but it turns out there is actually scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people take care of us at the end of our lives, recently issued report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say they are literally 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 had stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: wish I had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had courage to express my true self. And number five: I wish I’d a life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told one of the hospice workers, “I I’d spent more time playing video games,” but when I hear these top five regrets the dying, I 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 people, this means, I wish I’d spent more time with my family, my kids when they were growing up. Well, we know that games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School of Family Life that parents who spend more time playing video games with their have much 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 Words With Friends to in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent study from the University of 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 wish I’d let be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the groundbreaking trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day was enough to create dramatic in mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had courage to express my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can see in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And University has been doing research for five years now to document how playing a with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not 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 to this one.
But in meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be talking to us about regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. It started two ago, when I hit my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, was left with symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that in order heal my brain, I had to rest it. So had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no work email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — and I think 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 traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, it 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 these became so persistent and so persuasive that I started legitimately fear for my life, which is the time that I said myself after 34 days — and I will never forget this moment — I said, “I either going to kill myself or I’m going to this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the psychology of for more than a decade that when we play a game — and this in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, 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, and the first I did as a slayer was call my twin — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m a game to heal my brain, and I want you to play with me.” This was easier way to ask for help.
She became my first in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on even my worst to feel just a little bit good, just a little bit productive. 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 a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within a couple days of starting to play, that fog of depression and went away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and was the hardest year of my life by far. But when I still had the symptoms, even while I was still pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the surprised me. I put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not everybody a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” 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 getting “super better,” challenges like 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 the was helping them in the same ways that it me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better understood their friends and family. And they even talked about happier, even though they were in pain, even though were tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is going 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 turns out there’s some here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, is not something we usually hear about. We usually about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard to unleash best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and purpose in life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, this sound familiar? It should, because the top five traits post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the top regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead life with fewer 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 head in the first place? would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you can do day to build up these four kinds of resilience, and don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could tell what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all building them up together right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. 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 first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. we go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, make your hands into fists, raise them over your head as high you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 resilience, which means that your body can withstand more and heal itself faster. We know from the research the number one thing you can do to boost your physical resilience to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second you are not sitting still, you are actively improving health of your heart, and your lungs and 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 up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting down from 100 interfere with counting 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 resilience, which means you have more mental focus, more discipline, determination willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower 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 fingers exactly 50 times counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a 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 here the two options. If you’re inside, find a window and look out it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or do a 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 the screen. So, what 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 feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion over the of an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And this is the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my favorite SuperBetter trick, so it up.
All right, pick one, last 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! right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more strength from your friends, neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. means that all of you who just shook hands biochemically primed to like and want to help each other. will linger during the break, so take advantage of the opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. I get to share one more little bit of science with you. It out that people who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if are never sitting still for more than an hour at a time, if you are reaching out to person you care about every single day, if you tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s that math 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 than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So single year that you are boosting your four types resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 more days life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, we just 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 special mission, your secret mission. How are you going spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to wish for a more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or that you physically active, or puts you in touch with someone you care about, or even 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 the to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. when you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of those five regrets, because you will have built up the strength and resilience lead a life truer to your dreams. And with 10 years, you might even have enough time to play a more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)