I’m a gamer, so I like to goals. I 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 and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched talk.
Some of you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check out — I have math to prove that it is possible. It won’t make much now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to 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 your extra and a half minutes. And I think you should do unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might thinking to yourself, I know what she wants us to do with minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now this is totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose that should spend 21 billion hours a week, as a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a of time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I have from people all over the world since I gave talk, is this: Jane, games are great and all, but your deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more time Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are waste of time that we will come to regret — that hear it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this driver, upon finding out that a friend and I in town for a game developers’ conference, turned around said — and I quote — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting to the of your life and regretting all that time.”
Now, want to take this problem seriously. I want games to a force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers regret the time they spent playing, time that I encouraged to spend. So I have been thinking about this a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this surprise you, but it turns out there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. workers, the people who take care of us at the of our lives, recently issued a report on the frequently expressed regrets that people say when they are literally their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share with you today — top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t 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: wish I’d had the courage to express my true self. number five: I wish I’d lived a life true to dreams, instead 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 more time playing video games,” but when I these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings that actually help us fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, means, I wish I’d spent more time with my family, my kids when they were growing up. Well, we know playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham University School of Family Life reported that parents who more time playing video games with their kids have much stronger real-life with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds millions of people use social games like FarmVille or Words Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends and family. recent study from the University of Michigan showed that these are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected people in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t but think of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted East Carolina University that showed that online games can outperform for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day enough to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term increases happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, our heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can see in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five now to document how playing a game with an idealized changes how we think and act in real life, making us 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 a Mario question mark. We’re going to come back to one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this designer to be talking to us about deathbed regrets? it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never been on deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. It two years ago, when I hit my head and got a concussion. The didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was left with like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. doctor told me that in order to heal my brain, I had rest it. So I had to avoid everything that triggered symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, work or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — and I think see where this is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It to one in three, and it happened to me. brain started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” said, “You’re never going to get better.” It said, “The pain never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and so persuasive that started to legitimately fear for my life, which is the time that I to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the psychology of for more than a decade that when we play a game — this is 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 traits to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game Jane 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 twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing game to heal my brain, and I want you to play me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my first in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. was anything I could do on even my worst day to feel just a little good, just a little bit productive. Things like cuddling my for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking around the 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 game so simple, within just a couple days of starting play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more a year, and it was the hardest year of my life by far. But when I still had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. I up some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started from people all over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and videos that the game was helping them in the same ways 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 they were in pain, even though they were tackling toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is on here? I mean, how could a game so intervene so powerfully in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have believed it possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. We usually about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, the top five 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 to 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 of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your head in the first place? That be good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are validated activities that you can do every day to build up four kinds of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I tell you what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d we all start building them up together right now. Here’s what we’re to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This where you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All have to do is successfully complete 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. we go. Pick one: Stand up and take three steps, make your hands into fists, raise them over your as high as you can for five seconds, go! right, I like the people doing both. You are overachievers. good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 physical resilience, which means your body can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. We from the 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 you are 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, more discipline, determination willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets stronger more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or backwards from 100 by seven is actually a scientifically way to boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: of the room, fate’s really determined this for you, but here are the two options. you’re inside, find a window and look out of it. you’re outside, find a window and look in. Or do a quick or Google image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. Got that? Okay, more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re clapping for that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, what we’re just feeling there plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when you them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one emotion over the course of an hour, a day, week, you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any 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: 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 is +1 social resilience, means you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, great way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is better.
Here’s one more secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means all of you who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want to help each other. will linger during the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, have successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now get to share one more little bit of science with you. It turns out people who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than else. So this is true. If you are regularly the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still more than an hour at a time, if you reaching out to one person you care about every single day, you are tackling tiny goals to 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 expectancy in U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So every single year that you boosting your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour you are boosting your four types of resilience, like we just did together, you are 7.68245837 more minutes of life.
Congratulations, those seven and half 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. These seven and half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use first wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend seven and a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, that gets you physically active, or puts you in touch someone you care about, or even just tackling 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 day, every day of your life, all the way to 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 to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)