I’m a gamer, so I like to goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m to try to increase the life span of every person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will seven and a 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 it out — I have math to prove that it is possible. won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to the 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 to spend your 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 have them anyway.
Now, I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, 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 people to spend more time playing games. For example, in my TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, as a planet, video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all over the 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 games are a 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 — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting to the end of your and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take problem seriously. I want games to be a force for good the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time they playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So have been thinking about this question a lot lately. we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. workers, the people who take care of us at the end of our lives, recently issued a on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say when they are literally on their deathbeds. that’s what I want to share with you today — the five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed touch with my friends. Number three: I wish I 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, instead 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 video games,” but when I hear these top regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings games actually help 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 of Family Life reported that parents who spend more time video games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like 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 are incredibly relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in 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 conducted East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day enough to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term increases happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized of who we might become. You can see that in this alter ego by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And University has been doing research for five years now to how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes we think and act in real life, making us courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led life true to my dreams, and not what others of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Super question mark. We’re going to come back to this one.
But 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 a hospice, I’ve never on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell you story. It started two years ago, when I hit my head and got a concussion. concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was left with symptoms like headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My 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, no video games, work or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other — and I think you see where this is going — no reason live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to in three, and it happened to me. My brain started me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and so persuasive I started to legitimately fear for my life, which is the time that I said myself after 34 days — and I will never forget this moment — said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m to turn 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 is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more to reach out to others for help. I wanted to bring 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 first thing I did as a slayer was call twin sister — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and I want you play with me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together we and battled the bad guys. Now this was anything could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. also collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on even my day to feel just a little bit good, just a little bit productive. Things like 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 simple, within just a couple days of starting to play, that fog of and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It felt like miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it the hardest year of my life by far. But even when still had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. I put some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, everyone wants to be “the slayer,” so I renamed the SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from people all over the world who were 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 it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could from their messages and their videos that the game was helping them in the same ways that helped 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 though were in pain, even though they were tackling the toughest challenge of lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is going on here? I mean, how a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and in cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no 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 happening us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we use it as a 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 to what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I myself better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and purpose my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, this sound familiar? It should, because the top five of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. Now this interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event unlock our ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how it work? How do you get from trauma to growth? better yet, is there a way to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without trauma, without having to hit your head in the place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There 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 you these four types of strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather all start building them up together right now. Here’s we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where you earn the seven a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to do is complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand and take three steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over your as high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I the people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. is worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress and itself faster. We know from the research that the number one you can do to boost your physical resilience is to sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you are not still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, and lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want you to snap your fingers 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 to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that. physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s worth +1 resilience, which means you have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from the research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny without giving up, even one as absurd as snapping fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 seven is actually a scientifically 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 are the two options. If you’re inside, find a window and look out of it. you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or do a YouTube or Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put on the screen. So, what do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. Baby 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 plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every negative emotion over 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 favorite SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.
All right, one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send someone a quick thank 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 strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds raises the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s the hormone. That means that all of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like and 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 mission to give you seven and half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one little bit of science with you. It turns out that who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, and social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you are regularly achieving three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting for more than an hour at a time, if you are reaching out to one you care about every single day, if you are tackling goals to boost your willpower, you will live 10 years than everyone else, and here’s where that math I showed earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, 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 single year that you are boosting your four types resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, every single hour that you are boosting your four of resilience, like we just did together, you are 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and half minutes are all yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. still have your special mission, your secret mission. How are you going to spend these minutes bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a half bonus are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend seven and a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, puts you in touch with someone you care about, or even just a tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going to more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going that. Every hour of the day, every day of your life, all the to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it have otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of those 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)