I’m a gamer, so I like to goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special for this talk: I’m going to try to increase the life span of every single person this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, check it out — I have math to prove that it is possible. It won’t make sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to the number at bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my gift to you if I’m successful in mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. Your is to figure out how you want to spend your 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 them anyway.
Now, I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants us to do those minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. this is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I made quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more time games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours week, as a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people over the world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, are great and all, but on your deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more 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 everywhere 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 your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want take this problem seriously. I want games to be a 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. we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, may surprise you, but 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 report on the most frequently regrets that people say when they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what want to share with you today — the top five regrets the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed 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: wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one told one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent time playing video games,” but when I hear these top five of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings that games actually us fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t worked hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d more time with my family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, we that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School of Life reported that parents who spend more time playing video with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille Words With Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends family. A recent study from the University of Michigan showed these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in social network that we would otherwise grow 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 University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes 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, avatars a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, version of who we might become. You can see that in alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years to document how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true my 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 to come back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer be talking to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve worked in a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now me tell you that story. It started two years ago, when I hit my head and got concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I left with 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 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 to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and happened to me. My brain started telling 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 to legitimately fear for life, which is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, a game? I knew from researching the psychology of games more than a decade that when we play a game — and this in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, we’re more likely to reach out to others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now became my new secret identity, and the first thing I did as a slayer was call my sister — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — and her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and want you to play with me.” This was an easier way ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, husband Kiyash joined next, and together we identified and 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 also and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on even my 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 and walking around block just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a so simple, within just a couple days of starting to play, fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, it was the hardest year of my life by far. But even when still had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. I put up some blog posts and online, explaining how to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to “the slayer,” so 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 like cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And could tell from their messages and their videos that game was helping them in the same ways that helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling understood by their friends and family. And they even talked about feeling happier, even they were in pain, even though they were tackling toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, is going on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial intervene so powerfully such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. that’s what was happening to us.
The game was helping experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something 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 as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really am now.” “I a new sense of meaning 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 the top five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But does it work? How do you get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there way to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without trauma, without having to hit your head in the first place? That be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that can do every day to build up these four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need trauma to do it.
I could tell you what these types of strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we start building them up together right now. Here’s what we’re to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you do it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. Here go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, or make hands into fists, raise them over your head as high as you can five seconds, go! All right, I like the people doing both. are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress heal itself faster. We know from the research that the one thing you can do to boost your physical is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every second that you are not sitting still, you are actively the health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want to snap your fingers exactly 50 times, or count backwards 100 by seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting down from 100 interfere with your to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s worth +1 mental resilience, means you have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We from the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling tiny challenge without giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically way to boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s really this for you, but here 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. Or do a quick YouTube Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on phones, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, one more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re for that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s secret from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience three positive for every one negative emotion over the course of an hour, day, a 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 favorite trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send someone quick thank you by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. I it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to boost social 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 in your bloodstream, now that’s trust hormone. That means that all of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed to and want to help each other. This will linger during the break, so take advantage of networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my to 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 longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you never sitting still for more than an hour at a time, if you are out to one person you care about every single day, if are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will live 10 years than everyone else, and here’s where that math I you earlier comes in.
So, the average life 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 you can 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So every year that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re 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 earning 184 minutes life, or every single hour that you are boosting your four types resilience, like we just did together, you are earning 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. still have your special mission, your secret mission. How are you 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 use your wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven and a half today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts you in touch someone you care about, or even just tackling a challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going to more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going like that. Every hour the day, every day of your life, all the to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it would otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, you not have any of those top five regrets, because will have built up the strength and resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)