I’m a gamer, so I to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s special mission for this talk: I’m going to try to increase the life of every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you live seven and a half minutes longer than you have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some of you are looking little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I math to prove that it is possible. It won’t much sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention the number at the 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 extra seven and a half minutes. And think you should do something unusual with them, because are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might 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 time playing games. For example, in my first TED Talk, did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, as planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s lot of time. It’s so much time, in fact, the number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people over the world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great all, but on your deathbed, are you really going wish you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This is so pervasive — that games are a waste of time that we will come regret — that I hear it literally everywhere I go. example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon finding out 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 all that time.”
Now, want to take this problem seriously. I want games to be a force for 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 this question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret the time we playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there is actually some scientific research on question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care us at the end of our lives, recently issued report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say when they literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share with you today — the five regrets of the dying.
Number one: I wish I hadn’t worked hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed in with my friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself be happier. four: I wish I’d had the courage to express true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life true to dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as know, no one ever told one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing video games,” but I hear these top five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear 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 more time with my family, with my kids when were growing up. Well, we know that playing games has tremendous family benefits. A recent study from Brigham University School of Family 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 touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay in daily contact real-life friends and family. A recent study from the University of showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They us stay connected with people in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East University that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage express my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our selves, our most 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 years now to document how a game with an idealized avatar 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 expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re going come back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this designer to be talking to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never 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 let tell you that story. It started two years ago, I hit my head and got a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, after 30 days, I was left with symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, fog. My doctor told me that in order to heal my brain, I had to rest it. I had to avoid everything that 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 is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens one in three, and it happened to me. My started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never going to better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and will never forget this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill or I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching psychology of games for more than a decade that we play a game — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out others for help. I wanted to bring these gamer to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, the first thing I did as a slayer was my twin sister — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, I want you to play with me.” This was an way to ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, husband Kiyash joined next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the 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 just a little bit good, just a little bit productive. like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of and walking around the block just once.
Now the game that simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. even with a game 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 more than a year, and it was the hardest year of my life by far. But even I still had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now happened next with the game surprised me. I put up some posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I hearing from people all over the world who were adopting their secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their and their 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 understood by their and family. And they even talked 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 a game so trivial so powerfully in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if 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. Some people get stronger happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The was helping us 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 know that a traumatic doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things that with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand 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 on my and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the top traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of top five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? It seems that somehow, a traumatic event can our ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is a way to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without trauma, without having to hit your head in the place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to the phenomenon better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s I learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you can do every day build up these four kinds of resilience, and you don’t a trauma to do it.
I could tell you what these four of strength are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building them together right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where 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 your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and three steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over your head high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 physical resilience, means that your body can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. We know the research that the number one thing you can do to your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. single second that you are not sitting still, you are actively improving health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody for your next quest? I want you to snap your exactly 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting down from 100 interfere your counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the first I’ve ever 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 willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets stronger more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest three. Pick one: Because of the room, fate’s really determined this you, but here are the two options. If you’re inside, find a window and look of 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 it on your phones, just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them on the screen. So, what do we to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. Baby dolphin 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 just there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If can manage to experience three positive emotions for every negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your health 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, so keep it up.
All right, one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand for six seconds, or send someone a quick thank 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 you actually get more strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way to social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s trust hormone. That means that all of you who just hands are biochemically primed to like and want to help each other. This will linger during the break, take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you 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 I to share one more little bit of science with you. It turns out that who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 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 more than an at a time, if you are 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 the U.S. the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we know from more 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 days of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour that you are boosting 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. still have your special mission, your secret mission. How are you going to spend minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a half minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to wish for a million wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven and half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or gets you physically active, or puts you in touch with 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 news is, can keep going like that. Every hour of the day, every of your life, all the way to your deathbed, which will be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, will not have any of those top five regrets, 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)