I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my mission for this talk: I’m going to try to increase life span of every single person in this room by seven and half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half minutes longer than you have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a little skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have to 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. That will be gift 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. I think you should do something unusual with them, because are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I what she wants us to do with those minutes, wants us to spend them playing games. Now this a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. For example, in first TED Talk, I did propose that we should 21 billion hours a week, as 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 world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games great and 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 a waste of time that we will come to — that I hear it literally everywhere I go. example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon out that a friend and I were in town for a game developers’ conference, turned around said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste life. Imagine getting to the end of your life and regretting 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 they playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So I have been thinking about question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we 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, people who take care of us at the end of lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently expressed regrets people say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to with 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 friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d 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 me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing video games,” when I hear these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t but hear five deep human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d spent time with my family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, we know playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent from Brigham Young University School of Family Life reported that who spend more time playing video games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of use social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay daily 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 stay connected with people in our network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 of online game play a day was enough to create 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 most heroic, idealized version who we might become. You can see that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years now to document playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act in real life, making more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d a life true to my dreams, and not what others of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left Super Mario question mark. We’re going to come back to one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be talking to about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now me tell you that story. It started two years ago, when I my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t 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 brain, I had to rest it. So I had to avoid everything triggered my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, writing, no video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where this is going — no to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. happens to one 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 voices became so persistent and so persuasive that I started legitimately fear for my life, which is the time that I to myself after 34 days — and I will never forget this moment — I said, “I am going to kill myself or I’m going to turn this into game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the of games for more than a decade that when we play game — and this is in the scientific literature — we tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re likely to reach out to others for help. I wanted to bring gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now became my new secret identity, and the first thing did as a slayer was call my twin sister — I have an identical twin sister named — and 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 help.
She became my first ally in the game, husband Kiyash joined next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. 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 could do on my worst day to feel just a little bit good, just little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting of bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt a identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But with a game so simple, within just a couple of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t miracle cure for 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 while I was still in pain, stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game me. I put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining how play. But 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 the who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. I could tell from their messages and their videos that game was helping them in the same ways that it helped me. talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about better understood by their friends and family. And they even about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though they tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m to myself, what is going on here? I mean, how could game so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and some 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 out there’s some science here, too. Some people 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, which is something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really am now.” “I have new sense of meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this familiar? It should, because the top five traits of post-traumatic growth are the direct opposite of the top five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do you get from 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 to understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured the literature, and here’s what I learned. There are four of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there scientifically validated activities 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 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 what we’re going do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where you earn the seven and a half minutes bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and take steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over your as high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, like 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 stress and heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number thing you can do to boost your physical resilience is not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you not sitting still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I you to snap your fingers exactly 50 times, or count from 100 by seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t 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, discipline, determination and willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower actually like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated way boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: 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 it. If you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or do a 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 what 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, what we’re feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like 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 every one negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, week, you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle problem you’re facing. And this is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for seconds, or send someone a quick thank you by text, email, 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 actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, family, your community. Now, a great way to boost 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 trust hormone. That means that of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed like and want to help each other. This will linger the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to 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 regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you are 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 boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where that math I you earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that can add 10 years of life by boosting your four of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting your four of resilience, you’re actually earning .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 your four types of resilience, like we just did together, you are 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a minutes are all yours. You totally 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 half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or 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 resilience, so you’re going to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, you can going like that. Every hour of the day, every of your life, all the way to your deathbed, will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And you get there, more than likely, you will not any of those top five regrets, because you will built up the strength and resilience to lead a life to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)