I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special missions secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to try to increase life span of every single person in this room by seven a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because watched this talk.
Some of you are looking a bit 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 my gift to you if I’m in my mission.
Now, you have a secret mission too. Your mission is to figure out you want to spend your extra seven and a half minutes. And I think you should something unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants to do with those minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more time games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose we should spend 21 billion hours a week, as planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all the world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, but on your deathbed, you really going to wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This is so pervasive — that games are a waste time that we will come to regret — that I it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: Just few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and were in town for a game developers’ conference, turned around and said — and 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 a force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the they 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 the we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but turns out there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. workers, the people who take care of us at the end of our lives, recently issued report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say when they are literally on 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 courage to express my true self. And number five: wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, far as I know, no one ever told one of the workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing video games,” when I hear these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t help hear five deep human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I wish hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d spent more time with family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, we know that games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham University School of Family Life reported that parents who spend more time video games 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 and family. A recent study from the University of Michigan showed that these are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in our social 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 think of the 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 in and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage express my true self.” Well, avatars are a way 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 a with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years now to document how a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, not what others expected of me.” Are games doing 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 to talking to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never been my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. It started two ago, when I hit my head and got a concussion. concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was left with like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that order to heal my brain, I had to rest it. I 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 — and 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 it to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, you to die.” It said, “You’re never going to get better.” said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became persistent and so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear my life, which is the time that I said myself after 34 days — and I will never forget this moment — said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m going to turn into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew researching the psychology of games for more than a that when we play a game — and this is in scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more to reach out to others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer traits to real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and the first thing I did a slayer was call my twin sister — I have an identical 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 together we identified and battled the bad guys. this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, things bright lights and crowded 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 a little bit productive. Things cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking around the just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt a identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with game so simple, within just a couple days of to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted more than a year, and it was the hardest year my life by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even while was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what next with the game surprised me. I put up blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” so I the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing from all over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing like cancer and chronic 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 helping them in same ways that it helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better by their friends and family. And they even talked about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, though they were tackling the 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 so 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 turns out there’s science here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. that’s what was happening to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that 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 that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a new of 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 opposite of the top five of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? It that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do you from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without trauma, without having to hit your head in the first place? That would good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There are kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities you can do every day to build up these kinds of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to it.
I could tell you what these four types strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them up right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. is where you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete the first four quests. And I feel like you can do it. I confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your first quest. Here we go. one: Stand up and take three steps, or make your into fists, raise them over your head as high you can for five seconds, go! All right, I 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 more stress and heal faster. We know from the research that the number one you can do to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. 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 seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t give up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people down from 100 interfere with your counting 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 means you have more mental focus, discipline, determination 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 as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a 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 options. If you’re inside, find a window and look of it. If you’re outside, find a window and in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image search “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. look. Got 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 resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience three positive for every one negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, week, you dramatically improve your health and your ability successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And this is called 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. Keep it up. I love it! right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually more strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s more secret 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 the break, so take of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your four quests, let’s see I’ve successfully completed my mission to give you seven and a half minutes bonus life. Now I get to share one more bit of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you never sitting still for more than an hour at time, if you are reaching out to one person you care about single day, if you are tackling tiny goals to your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than else, and here’s where that math I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life expectancy in U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that can add 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. every single year 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 earning 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. still have your special mission, your secret mission. How are you to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, you spend these seven and a half minutes today doing something makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, puts you in touch with someone you care about, or even just a tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, you’re going to earn more minutes.
And the good is, you can keep going like that. Every hour of the day, every day of your life, all way to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later it would have otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, you not have any of those top five regrets, because you will have built up the strength and resilience lead a life truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)