I’m a gamer, I like to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going 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 skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math prove that it is possible. It won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain it later, just pay attention to the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. will be my gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a mission too. Your mission is to figure out how want to spend your extra seven and a half minutes. And I think you should something unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be to yourself, I know what she wants us to with those minutes, she wants us to spend them games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. For example, my first TED Talk, I did propose that we spend 21 billion hours a week, as a planet, video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, the number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from all over the world since I gave that talk, this: Jane, games are great and all, but on your deathbed, are really going to wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea so pervasive — that games are a waste of that we will come to regret — that I it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon finding out a friend and I were in town for a developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine to the end of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to this problem seriously. I want games to be a force for good the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So I been thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re on deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it out there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who care of us at the end of our lives, issued a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what want to share with you today — the top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I had 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: I wish I’d lived life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, 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 regrets 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 hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d spent more time with my family, with kids when they were growing up. Well, we know playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study Brigham Young University School of Family Life reported that parents spend more time playing video games with their kids 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 study from the University of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They us stay connected with people in our social network that we would otherwise distant from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a was enough to create dramatic boosts 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 express our selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we become. You can see that in this alter ego by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has doing research for five years now to document how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how think and act in real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, not what others expected of me.” Are games doing yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Super question mark. We’re going to come back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this designer to be talking to us about deathbed regrets? it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now me tell you that story. It started two years ago, I hit my head and got a concussion. The 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 in order to heal my brain, I had to rest it. I had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For me that no reading, no writing, no video games, no work email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — I think you see where this is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of it’s meant to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one three, and it happened to me. My brain started me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never going to get better.” It said, “The will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and so persuasive I started to legitimately fear for my life, which the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and will never forget this moment — I said, “I am either going kill myself or I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from the psychology of games for more than a decade when we play a game — and this is the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach to others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I a role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my secret identity, and the 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 you to play with me.” This was an easier way ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things like bright and crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on even worst day to feel just a little bit good, just a little bit productive. Things like cuddling 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, the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within a couple days of starting to play, that fog depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it was the hardest of my life by far. But even when I still the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now happened next with the game surprised me. I put some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” so I the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from people all over world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing 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 braver. They talked about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And they even talked 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 on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial so powerfully in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would believed it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s science here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. We hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, can use it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and happier lives.
Here are the top five things that with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know I really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this familiar? It should, because the top five traits of post-traumatic are essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? do you get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a way get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having hit your head in the first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to understand phenomenon better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There are four of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated that you can do every day to build up these four kinds resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could tell you what these four types strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start them up together right now. Here’s what we’re going do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where you the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete the first SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have confidence you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. Here go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, or your hands into fists, raise them over your head high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like the doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. is worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. We from the research that the number one thing you can do to boost your physical resilience to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you not sitting still, you are actively improving the health your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your quest? I want you to snap your fingers exactly 50 times, or 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 +1 mental resilience, which means you have more mental focus, more discipline, and willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower actually works 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 or backwards from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated to boost 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 and look out of it. If you’re outside, find a and look in. Or do a quick YouTube or image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or just shout out some animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do we to 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 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 like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, you need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific for you. If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion the course of an hour, a day, a week, you improve 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 keep it up.
All right, one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send a quick thank you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep up. I love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is better.
Here’s one more secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand six 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 to like and want to help each other. This will linger during break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve completed my mission to give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to one more little bit of science with you. It out that people who regularly boost these four types resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So is true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you never sitting still for more than an hour at a time, if are reaching out to one person you care about every day, if you are tackling tiny goals to boost willpower, you will live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average 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 can add 10 years of life by boosting your types of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting your types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 more of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every single day, you are 184 minutes of life, or every single hour that you are boosting your types of resilience, like we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes all yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have special mission, your secret mission. How are you going to spend 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 these seven and a half minutes today doing something that makes happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts you in touch with someone care about, or even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going like that. Every 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 not have any of those top five regrets, because you will have built up strength and resilience to lead a life truer to dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have time to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)