I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for talk: I’m going to try to increase the life span every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, because you watched 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 all later, pay attention to the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my gift to if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a secret too. Your mission is to figure out how you want spend your extra seven and a 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 with minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now this is a totally assumption, given that I have made quite a habit of encouraging people to spend 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 number one unsolicited comment that I have from people all over the world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are and all, but on your deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are a waste of time we will come to regret — that I hear it literally 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 said — and I quote — “I hate games. of life. Imagine getting to the end of your life regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. want 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 thinking about this a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. workers, the people who take care of us at the end our lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently expressed that people say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share you today — the top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 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 what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever one of the 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 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 Brigham Young University School of Family Life reported that parents spend more time playing video games with their kids have much real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent from the University of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in our social network that we would grow distant from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, I 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 anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. can see that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been research for five years now to document how playing a game with an idealized avatar how we think and act in real life, making more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” Are 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, 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 been on deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting 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 left with symptoms nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that order to heal my 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, no or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In words — and I think you see where this is going — no reason live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, but all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens one in three, and it happened to me. My started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never going to better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for life, which is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — I 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 from researching the psychology of games for more than decade that when we play a game — and is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out to others help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this my new secret identity, and the first thing I did a slayer was call my twin sister — I have an twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m a game to heal my brain, and I want you play 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 we identified and battled bad guys. Now this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore down the healing process, things like bright lights and spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I do on even my worst day to feel just a little good, just a little bit productive. Things like cuddling my for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and around the block just once.
Now the game was simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just a couple of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and was the hardest year of my life by far. But even I still had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened with the game surprised me. I put up some posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not everybody a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” so renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from people all over the world who were adopting own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their and their videos that the game was helping them the same ways that it helped me. They talked about stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And they even about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though they were tackling the toughest challenge their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is 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 believed it possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some 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 something we 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 unleash our qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I closer to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. know who 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 sound familiar? It should, because the top five traits of post-traumatic are essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. Now this interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How you get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your 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 learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you can do every day to up these four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma do it.
I could tell you what these four types of strength are, I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all 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 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. we go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, make your hands into fists, raise them over your head as as you can for five seconds, go! All right, like the people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress and itself faster. We know from the research that the number one thing can do to boost your physical resilience is to not still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you are sitting still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, and your and 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 the people counting down 100 interfere with your counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s first time I’ve ever seen that. Bonus 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 the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, one as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated way to your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: of the room, fate’s really determined this for you, here are the two options. If you’re inside, find a window and look of it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or do a quick or Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see we got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. 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, which means have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s secret from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to three positive emotions for every one negative emotion over 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, keep it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s for six seconds, or send someone a quick thank 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 resilience, which means you actually get more strength from friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more secret for you: Shaking someone’s for six seconds dramatically raises the level of oxytocin your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means that all 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 give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. I get to share one more little bit of with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four types resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still for than an hour at a time, if you are reaching out to one person care about every single day, if you are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s that math I showed you earlier comes in.
So, average life expectancy in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 years life by boosting your four types of resilience. So every single that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re actually .128 more years of life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 minutes of life, which means every single day, you are 184 minutes of 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 all yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your special mission, your secret mission. are you going to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These and a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to wish a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you these seven and a half minutes today doing something makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts you in with someone you care about, or even just tackling a 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, which will now be 10 years later than would have otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, you will not have of those top five regrets, because you will have built up the strength and to lead a life truer to your dreams. And 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to play few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)