I’m a gamer, so I to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special for this talk: I’m going to try to increase the span 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 because you this talk.
Some of you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check out — I have math to prove that it possible. It won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain all later, just pay attention to the number at bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my gift to if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have secret mission too. Your mission is to figure out you want to spend your extra seven and a minutes. And I think you should do something unusual with them, because are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be thinking yourself, I know what she wants us to do with those minutes, wants us to spend them playing games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, given I have made quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more playing games. For 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 so much time, fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I 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 Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that are a waste of time that we will come to — that I hear it literally everywhere I 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 and said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting the end of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, want to take this problem seriously. I want games to be a for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time they playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So I have been thinking about this question a lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there is actually some scientific on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care of us the end of our lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want share with you today — the top five regrets of dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I I had stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: I wish had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had courage to express my true self. And number five: wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, of 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 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, wish I’d spent more time with my family, with my kids when were growing up. Well, we know that playing games has 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 real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions people use 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. help us stay connected with people in our social that we would otherwise grow 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 groundbreaking trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day was to create dramatic boosts in mood and 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, our most heroic, version of who we might become. You can see that in this ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford has been doing research for five years now to document how playing a game with an idealized changes how we think and act in real life, making more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re going come back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, is this game designer to be talking to us deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really to die.
Now let me tell you that story. It started years ago, when I hit my head and got 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 told me that in order to heal my brain, I had rest it. So I had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. me that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other — and I think you see where this is going — reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with 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.” said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and so that I started to legitimately fear for my life, which the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either going 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 — and this is in 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 to bring these traits to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new identity, and the first thing I did as a slayer call my twin sister — I have an identical twin named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game to my brain, and I want you to play with me.” This 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 was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This was anything 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 bed walking around the block just once.
Now the game was simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with game so simple, within just a couple days of starting to play, fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it was hardest year of my life by far. But even I still had the symptoms, even while I was in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next the game surprised me. I put up some blog posts videos online, explaining how 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 over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. I could tell from their messages and their videos the game was helping them in the same ways that it me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better by their friends and family. And they even talked about feeling happier, even they were in pain, even though they were tackling toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what going on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s was happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what 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 to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as springboard to unleash our 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 afraid do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the top traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the five regrets of the 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 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? That be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured the literature, and here’s what I learned. There are four kinds strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and are scientifically validated activities that you can do every day to build up these four of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could tell you what these four 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 minutes of bonus life that promised you earlier. All you have to do is complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can 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 your hands into fists, raise them your head as high as you can for five seconds, go! right, I like the people doing both. You are overachievers. good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can 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. single second that you are not sitting still, you actively improving the health of your heart, and your lungs brains.
Everybody ready for your next 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 give up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let people counting down from 100 interfere with your counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first I’ve ever seen that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s +1 mental resilience, which means you have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from 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 absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven actually a scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So job. Quest number three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s determined this for you, but here are the two options. If you’re inside, find window and look out of it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or a 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. dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, one more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re clapping that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, which you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, you need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to three positive emotions for every one negative emotion over the course an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your health and your 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, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, 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, that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed like and want to help each other. This will linger during break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one more bit of science with you. It turns out that people who boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. this is true. If you are regularly achieving 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 to 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 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 that you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four of resilience. So every single year that you are your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes life, or every single hour that you are boosting four types of resilience, like we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half are all yours. You 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 my suggestion. seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use first wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if spend these seven and a half minutes today doing that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or 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 to earn minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going like that. Every hour the day, every day of your life, all the to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than 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 resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you even have enough time to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)