I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special missions and objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to try to the life span of every single person in this by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — have math to prove that it is possible. It won’t make 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 successful my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. Your mission is to figure how you want to spend your extra seven and a minutes. And I think you should do something unusual with them, because these are minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, might be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants us to with those minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I 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 one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all over world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, are great and all, but on your deathbed, are really going to wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is pervasive — that games 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 around and said — 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 want to be a force for 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 lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, it turns out there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the who take care of us at the end of lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say when they 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 I stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself be happier. Number four: wish I’d had the courage to express my true self. And number five: wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, instead of others 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,” but when I hear these top five of the dying, I can’t help but hear five human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I wish hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d more time with my family, with my kids when they growing up. Well, we know that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham University School of Family Life reported that parents who spend time playing video games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I 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 contact real-life friends and family. A recent study from the University of Michigan showed that these games incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, we 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 conducted at East Carolina University that that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage 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 avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years to document how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d a life true to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” Are games doing 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, you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be talking to us deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I did three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell that story. It started two years ago, when I hit my head and 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. doctor told me that in order to heal my brain, had to rest it. So I had to avoid that triggered my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of it’s meant to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. happens to one in three, and it happened to me. My brain telling 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 persistent and so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, which is the time I said to myself after 34 days — and 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 — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach to others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and the first thing I did a slayer was call my twin sister — I have identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and want you to play with me.” This was an easier to ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my husband joined next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was anything that trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things like bright lights crowded spaces. We also collected 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. Things like cuddling my for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the game that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a days of starting to play, that fog of depression and went away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than year, and it was the hardest year of my life by far. But even when I still the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, started hearing from people all over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their and their videos that the game was helping them in the same 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, even though they were tackling toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is going 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 people get stronger and after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists know that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard to our best qualities and lead happier 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 me happy.” “I feel closer to friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know I really am now.” “I have a new sense meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, the top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially direct opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But does it work? How do you get from trauma to growth? better yet, is there a way to get all the benefits post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit 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 what I learned. There are four kinds strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you do every day to build up these four kinds resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could tell what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather you experience firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them up together now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play quick game together. This is where you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus that I promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: up and take three steps, or make your hands fists, raise them over your head as high as you can for seconds, go! All right, I like the people doing both. You are overachievers. good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 physical resilience, which that your body can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. know from the research that the number one thing you can do to your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single that you are not sitting still, you are actively improving health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody 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 the people counting down from 100 interfere with your counting 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s worth +1 resilience, which means you have more mental focus, more discipline, and willpower. We know from the scientific research that 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 snapping your fingers exactly 50 times counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated way to your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s really determined for you, but here are 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 quick YouTube or image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on phones, or just shout out 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. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re for that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just feeling there is plus-one resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion the course of an hour, a day, a week, dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully any problem you’re facing. And this is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, send someone a quick thank you by text, email, Facebook Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. it up. I love it! All right, everybody, that +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social resilience 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 all of you who just shook 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 your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed mission 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 types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, you are never sitting still for more than an hour a time, if you are reaching out to one you care about every single day, if you are tackling tiny to boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer everyone else, and here’s where that math I showed earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy in U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 years of life boosting your four types of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 days of life, or 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 just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes 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 you going to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a half bonus minutes kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend seven and a half minutes today doing something that 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, you’re going to earn more minutes.
And the good 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 it would otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of those top regrets, because you will have built up the strength and to 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)