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 every single person in this room by seven and a minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half minutes longer you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I math to 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 you I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. mission is to figure out how you want to spend extra seven and a half minutes. And I think you should do something unusual them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I what she wants us to do with those minutes, she wants us to them playing games. Now this 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 Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, a 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 the since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, on your deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more time Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are a waste time that we will come to regret — that I hear it literally I go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon out that a friend and I were in town a game developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting to the end of your life regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. I want games be a force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. I have been thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re our deathbeds, will we regret the time 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 people take care of us at the end of our lives, recently a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share with today — the top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. two: I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: wish I had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express my self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life true to dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, far as I know, no one ever told one of the hospice workers, “I I’d spent more time playing video games,” but when I these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but five deep human cravings that 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, with my kids when they growing up. Well, we know that playing games together tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University of Family Life reported that parents who spend more time playing games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of use social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay in contact with real-life friends and family. A recent study from the of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us connected with people in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t playing 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 pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day was enough to create dramatic in mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage express my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of we might become. You can see that in this ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. Stanford 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 a life to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” 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 game designer to be talking to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve worked in a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. 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 got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was left symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told me in 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, video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other — and I think you see where this is — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and it to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, you to die.” It said, “You’re never going to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these became so persistent and so persuasive that I started to legitimately for my life, which is the time that I said myself after 34 days — and I will never this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m going turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching psychology of games for more than a decade that when we a game — and this is in the scientific literature — we tough challenges with more creativity, more 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 I did as a slayer was call my twin sister — have an identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a to heal my brain, and I want you to play with me.” was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was anything could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, like bright lights and 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 bit productive. like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting of bed and walking around the block just once.
Now game was that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within a couple days of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than year, and it was the hardest year of my life far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the surprised me. I put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started from people all over the world who were adopting their own identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell their messages and their videos that the game was them in the same ways that it helped me. talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better understood their friends and family. And they even talked about feeling happier, though they were in pain, even though they were the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what going on here? I mean, how could a game trivial intervene 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 have believed it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s was happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, is not something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard to 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 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 of and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the top traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets of dying. Now this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does work? How do you get from trauma to growth? Or yet, is there a way to get all the benefits post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your in the first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that to 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 to do it.
I could tell what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather you them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them together right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where you the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you to do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And feel like you can do it. I have confidence in you.
So, ready? This is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and take 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. You overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 physical resilience, means that your body can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. know from the research that the number one thing you do to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s it takes. Every single second that you are not sitting still, you actively improving the health of your heart, and your lungs 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 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 mental resilience, which you have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as absurd snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven is a scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So job. Quest number three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s really determined this for you, but are the two options. If you’re inside, find a window look out of it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. do a quick YouTube or Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do on your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see we got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, one more. elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re clapping for that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, we’re just feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, which you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when you need most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience three emotions for every one negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, a week, dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And is called 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 someone a thank you by text, email, Facebook or 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, neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like want to help each other. This will linger during break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your four quests, let’s if I’ve successfully completed my mission to give you seven a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to one more little bit of science with you. It turns that people who regularly boost these four types of — 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 more 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 boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than everyone else, here’s where that math I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know from more 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 are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more of life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 of life, or every single hour that you are boosting your types of resilience, like we just did together, you earning 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven a half minutes are 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. seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can your first wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these and a half minutes today doing something that makes happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts in touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re to boost your resilience, so you’re going to earn minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going like that. hour of the day, every day of your life, all way to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years than it would have otherwise. And when you get there, than likely, you will not have any of those five regrets, because you will have built up the strength and resilience to lead a truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)