I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. I special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going try to increase the life span of every single person in room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math prove that it is possible. It won’t make much now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will my gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. Your mission is figure out how you want to spend your extra seven 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 be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants to do with those minutes, she wants us to spend playing games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, given I have made quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more time games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, as a planet, playing games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment I have heard from people all over the world since I gave talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, on your deathbed, are you really going to wish spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is pervasive — that games are a waste of time that we come to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon finding out that a and I were in town for a game developers’ conference, turned around said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting the end of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I to take 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 have been about this question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, it turns out there is actually some scientific research this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care of 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. And that’s I want to share with you today — the five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed in touch my friends. Number three: I wish I had let be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as far 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 deep cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d more time with my family, with my kids when were growing up. Well, we know that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. recent study from Brigham Young University School of Family reported that parents who spend more time playing video games with their kids have much stronger real-life with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille or Words Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent from the University of Michigan showed that these games incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in our social network we would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, I 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 clinical anxiety and depression. 30 minutes of online game play a day was to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I I’d had the courage to express my true self.” Well, are a way to express our true selves, our heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing for five years now to document how playing a with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act in life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to dreams, and not what others expected of me.” Are games this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re going to come back this one.
But in 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 been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me you that 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 symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that in order heal my brain, I had to rest it. So had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where this going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to in three, and it happened to me. My brain telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never going 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 to after 34 days — and I will never forget this — 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 play a game — and is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out to for help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane the Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and the thing I did as a slayer was call my twin sister — I have identical 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 for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together we identified battled the bad guys. Now this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do even my worst day to feel just a little bit good, just a little productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed walking around the block just once.
Now the game that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within a couple days of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it was the hardest of my life by far. But even when I had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing people all over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their videos that game was helping them in the same ways that it helped me. They talked about feeling stronger braver. They talked about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And even talked about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even they were tackling 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 so trivial intervene powerfully in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s way I would have believed it was possible. Well, it out there’s some science here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after traumatic event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The game was helping experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something we 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 use it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things 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 understand better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct of the top five regrets of the dying. Now this interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How you get from trauma to growth? Or 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 to understand 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 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 start building up together right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play quick game together. This is where you earn the seven and a minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to is successfully 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 go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, or make your hands into fists, raise over your head as high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like people 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 know from research that the number one thing you can do to boost your physical resilience is not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you are not sitting still, you actively improving the health of your heart, and your and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I you to 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 let the people counting down from 100 interfere with counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first time I’ve seen 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 like a muscle. gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: Because the room, fate’s really determined this for you, but here are the two options. If you’re inside, a window and look out of it. If you’re outside, find window and look in. Or do a quick YouTube or image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do we 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 clapping that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, which you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which feel looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience three emotions for every one negative emotion over the course an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And this called 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 hand for six seconds, or 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 friends, your neighbors, your 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 level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. means that all of you who just shook hands are primed to like and want to help each other. This will during the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get share one more little bit of science with you. It turns out that people who boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer everyone else. So this is true. If you are achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never still for more than an hour at a time, you are reaching out to one person you care about every single day, if are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that math I showed you earlier in.
So, the average life expectancy in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 years of life by your four types of resilience. So every single year that you are your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 years of life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 minutes of life, which means every single day, you earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour you are boosting your four types of resilience, like we just together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, seven and a half minutes are all yours. You earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your special mission, your mission. How are you going to spend these minutes bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to wish for 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 you touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling a challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going earn more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going that. Every hour of the day, every day of your life, all the way your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. when you get there, more than likely, you will not have any of those five regrets, because you will have built up the strength and resilience to lead life truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to play few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)