I’m a gamer, I like to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my mission for this talk: I’m going to try to increase the life span every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will seven and a 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 possible. It won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain all 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 want to spend your extra seven and half minutes. And I think you should do something unusual with them, because these bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be thinking yourself, I know what she wants us to do with minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now this a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a habit of people to spend more time playing games. For example, my first TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 billion a week, as a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I have heard from people all over 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 Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are waste of time that we will come to regret — that I it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: a few weeks ago, this cab driver, upon finding that a friend and I were in town for a developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I quote — “I hate games. of life. Imagine getting to the end of your life regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take this seriously. I want games to be a force for good in the world. I don’t want gamers regret the time they spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. I have been thinking about this question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we regret time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out 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 that people say 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 I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express my self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a true to my dreams, instead of what others expected me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing games,” but when 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 I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, wish I’d spent more time with my family, with kids when they were growing up. Well, we know that playing games together has tremendous benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School of Life reported that parents who spend more time playing games with their kids have much stronger real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay in contact with real-life friends 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 our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d myself be happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self.” Well, are a way to express our true selves, our heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You see that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years now document how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and in real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not others expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re going come back to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, is this game designer to be talking to us deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell you that story. started two years ago, when I hit my head and a concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I was left symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. doctor told me that in order to heal my brain, I had to rest it. So I had avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — and I you see where this 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 brain started me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re going 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 my life, is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will never forget moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? knew from researching the psychology of games for more than a decade when we play a game — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re 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 called the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and the thing I did as 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 with me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together we identified and battled the guys. Now this was anything that could trigger my symptoms and slow down the healing process, things like bright lights and spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This was I could do on even my worst day to feel just a bit good, just a little bit productive. Things like cuddling my 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 your allies, battle the guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a game so simple, just a couple days of starting to play, that of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. felt like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, it was the hardest year of my life by far. even when I still had the symptoms, even while I still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. I put up blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But not everybody has concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started hearing 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, and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their videos that the game was helping them in same ways that it helped me. They talked about feeling and braver. They talked about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And they talked about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though they were tackling the challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m to myself, what is going on here? I mean, how could a game trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and in some life-and-death, circumstances? I mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s way I would have believed it was possible. Well, turns out there’s some 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 scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, can use it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things that people with post-traumatic say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know I really am now.” “I have a new sense of and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the top five traits post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a life fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do you get from trauma to growth? better yet, is there a way to get all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, having to hit your head in the first place? That would good, right?
I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured scientific literature, and here’s what I learned. There are four 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 do 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 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 to do is successfully complete the first four quests. And I feel like you can do it. I have 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 like the people both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number thing you can do to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all takes. Every single second that you are not sitting still, you are actively improving the health of heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for next quest? I want you to snap your fingers exactly 50 times, or backwards from 100 by seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t give up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting from 100 interfere with your counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the time I’ve ever seen that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s +1 mental resilience, which means you have more mental focus, more discipline, and willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets the 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: Because of the room, fate’s determined this for you, but here are the two options. If you’re inside, a window and look out of it. If you’re outside, a window and look in. Or do a quick YouTube or 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 want 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 emotional resilience, which you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature you. If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every negative emotion over the course of an hour, a day, a week, you improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And 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 six seconds, send someone a quick thank you by text, email, 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 strength your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, great way to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more secret you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the level of in your bloodstream, now that’s the trust hormone. That means that all you who just shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want to help each other. This will during the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed mission to give you seven and a half minutes bonus life. Now I get to share one more little of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are never sitting still for more an hour at a time, if you are reaching out to one person you care every single day, if you are tackling tiny goals boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer everyone else, and here’s where that math I showed you earlier in.
So, the average life expectancy in the 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 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 more minutes of life, means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour that you are your four types of resilience, like we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more of life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still your special mission, your secret mission. How are you to spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s suggestion. These seven and a half bonus minutes are kind of genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, you spend these seven and a half minutes today doing that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or puts in touch with someone you care about, or even just tackling a challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, can keep going like that. Every hour of the day, day of your life, all the way to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later 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 a life to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)