I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for talk: I’m going to try to increase the life span of every single person in this by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some of are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math to prove it is 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 you if I’m in my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. Your mission is to out how you want to spend your extra seven and half minutes. And I think you should do something unusual them, because 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 those minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now this is a reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. For example, in first 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 lot time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all over world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great all, but on your deathbed, are you really going wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that are a waste of time that we will come to regret — that I hear it everywhere I go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this cab driver, finding out that a friend and I were in town for a developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. getting to the end of your life and regretting that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. I games to be a force for good in the world. don’t want gamers to regret the time they spent playing, time I encouraged them to spend. So I have been about this question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, we 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 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 want to share with you today — the top five regrets 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: I I had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d the courage to express my true self. And number five: wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what others of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told one the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing video games,” but when I these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings that games help us fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. many people, this means, I wish I’d spent more time with family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, we that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University of Family Life reported that parents who spend more time playing video games with their have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille Words With Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent from the University of Michigan showed that these games incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected people in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here can’t help but think of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently at East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts in and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years now to document playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how 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 not others expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left Super Mario question mark. We’re going to come back this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer to talking to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting 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, memory loss, fog. My doctor told me that in order to heal brain, I had to rest it. So I had to avoid everything that my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, work or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other — and I think you see where this is going — no to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, but in seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and happened to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices so persistent and so persuasive that I started to fear for my life, which is the time that I to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew researching the psychology of games for more than a decade that we play a game — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and 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 heal my brain, and I want you to with me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was anything that could trigger symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things like bright lights crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This anything I could do on even my worst day feel just a little bit good, just a little 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: Adopt a identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a couple of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and was the hardest year of my life by far. But even when I had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. I put up some posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But everybody 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 cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could from their messages and their videos that the game was helping them in the ways that it helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And they even talked about happier, even though they were in pain, even though they were the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m to myself, what is going on here? I mean, could a game 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 I have believed it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s science here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after traumatic event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. usually hear 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 unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my and family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and 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 top regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do you get from to growth? Or better yet, is there a way to get all the of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your head in the place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, there 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 tell you what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather you them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them up together right now. Here’s what we’re going do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where you earn the seven a half minutes of bonus life that I promised earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete the first four quests. And I feel like you can do it. have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up take three steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over head as high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like the people doing both. are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand more and heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number one you can do to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every second that you are not sitting still, you are actively the health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want you snap your fingers exactly 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 counting 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 more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from the scientific that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. So a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as absurd as your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven actually a scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So good job. number three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s really determined this for you, here are the two options. If you’re inside, find a window 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, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll them on the screen. So, what do we want see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. look. Got that? Okay, one more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re clapping that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which 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 course an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. this is called 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 hand for seconds, or send someone a quick 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 is +1 social resilience, means you actually get more strength from your friends, neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to boost resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more secret you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the level of in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means that of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed like and want to help each other. This will linger during the break, so take of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed 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 four of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer everyone else. So this is true. If you are regularly achieving three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still for more than hour at a time, if you are reaching out to one person you care about every day, if you are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that math I you earlier comes 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 you can add 10 of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So every 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, you are earning 184 minutes life, or every single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are all yours. You totally them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your special mission, your secret mission. How are going to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and half bonus minutes are kind of like 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 minutes today something that makes you happy, or that gets you active, or puts you in touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, can keep going like that. Every hour of the day, day of your life, all the way to your deathbed, will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. when you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of top five regrets, because you will have built up the and resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)