I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special 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 live seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you this talk.
Some of you are looking a little skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math to prove that it is possible. won’t make much sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, have a secret mission too. Your mission is to figure out how you to spend your extra seven and a half minutes. I think you should do something unusual with them, because are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I what she wants us to do with those minutes, she us to spend them playing games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, given I have made quite a habit of encouraging people spend more time playing games. For example, in my first TED Talk, did propose that we should spend 21 billion hours a week, a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I heard from people all over the world since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, are great and all, but on your deathbed, are really going to wish you spent more time playing Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games are a waste of time that we will to regret — that I hear it literally everywhere go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were in town for game developers’ conference, turned around and said — and I — “I hate games. Waste of life. Imagine getting to the end of life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. want games to be a force for good in world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time they spent playing, time I encouraged them to spend. So I have been 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 there is actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care us at the end 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 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: I I had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the to express my true self. And number five: I I’d lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what others of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told one of hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing games,” but when I hear these top five regrets the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human 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 time with my 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 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 social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends to stay in contact with real-life friends and family. A recent study from the University Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. help us stay connected with people in our social that we would otherwise grow distant from, if we weren’t playing together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, here can’t help but think of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted East Carolina 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 in and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized of who we might become. You can see that this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research five years now to document how playing a game an idealized avatar changes how we think and act real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and what others expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Super Mario mark. We’re going to come back to this one.
But in meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be talking to us about regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me you that story. It started 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 symptoms nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that in order to heal brain, I had to rest it. So I had 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 — and I think see where this is going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, but all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one three, and it happened to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, want to die.” It said, “You’re never going to better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, which is the time that said to myself after 34 days — and I will never this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill myself or I’m going to turn into a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the psychology of games for more a decade that when we play a game — and is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges 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 game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, the first thing I did as a slayer was call my twin sister — I have identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and 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 was anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore down the healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also and activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on even my worst day feel just a little 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 identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate power-ups. But even with a game so simple, within just couple days of starting to play, that fog of and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It felt a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. lasted for more than a year, and it was the hardest year of my by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining to play. But not everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone to be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I hearing from people all over the world who were their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, depression Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And 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 stronger and braver. They talked about better understood by their friends and family. And they even talked about happier, even though they were in pain, even though they were tackling the challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what is going 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 for me, there’s no way I would have believed it possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some people get stronger and after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The game helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is something we usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic event doesn’t us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard 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 afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I feel to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the top five regrets the dying. Now this is interesting, right? It seems somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How do get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a way to all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without to hit your head in the first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted understand the phenomenon better, so I devoured 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 that you do every day to build up these four kinds resilience, and you don’t need 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 we all start building them up together right now. Here’s 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 I you earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can do it. I confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? This is your quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and three steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them over your head as as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like people doing both. You are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That worth +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number one thing you 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 your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your next quest? I want you to snap fingers exactly 50 times, or count backwards from 100 seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t give up.
(Snapping)
Don’t the people counting down from 100 interfere with your 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 have more mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. know from the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It gets stronger the more exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as absurd snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 by is actually a scientifically validated way to boost your willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. one: Because 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. If you’re outside, find a and look in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image search “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or just shout 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 we got. dolphin and 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 feeling there is plus-one resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which feel looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret from scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative over the course of an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And this is called the three-to-one emotion ratio. It’s my favorite SuperBetter trick, so keep up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s hand six seconds, or send someone a quick thank you text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep it up. love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually more strength from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically raises the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream, that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of 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 opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed mission 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 people who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, and social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So is true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, you are never sitting still for more than an at a time, if you are reaching out to one you care about every single day, if you are tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will live 10 longer than 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, we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can 10 years of life by boosting your four types resilience. So every single year that you are boosting four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, like we just did together, you 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. You still have your special mission, your secret mission. are you going 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. can use your first wish to wish for a million wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these seven a half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, or that gets you active, or puts you in touch with someone you care about, even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re going to your resilience, so you’re going to earn more minutes.
And good news is, you can keep going like that. Every of the day, every day of your life, all the way to your deathbed, which now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when get there, more than likely, you will not have any of those five regrets, because you will have built up the strength resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. And with 10 years, you might even have enough time to play few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)