I’m a gamer, so like to have goals. I like special missions and objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to to increase the life span of every single person in this room by and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half minutes longer than you have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because it out — I have math to prove that 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 you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have a mission too. Your mission is to figure out how you want to spend your extra 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 game designer, you be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants us do with those minutes, she wants us to spend them playing games. Now is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a of encouraging 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 lot 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 playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea 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, 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 of life. Imagine getting to the end of life and regretting all that time.”
Now, I want to this problem seriously. I want games to be a for good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time they spent playing, time that encouraged them to spend. So I have been thinking about this question lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, will we the time we spent playing games?
Now, this may surprise you, but it turns out there actually some scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care of at the end of our lives, recently issued a report the most 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 wish had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to my true self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one ever told of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time video games,” but when I hear these top five of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human that games 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, with kids when they were growing up. Well, we know playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent study Brigham Young University School of Family Life reported that parents who spend time playing video games with their kids have much real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of people use social games like FarmVille or Words With to stay in daily contact with real-life friends and family. recent study from the University of Michigan showed that these games incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected people in our social network that we would otherwise grow from, if we weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the groundbreaking clinical recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online can outperform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 of online game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts in mood long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, version of who we might become. You can see in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. Stanford University has been doing research for five years now document how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes we think and act in real life, making us courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not what others expected of me.” Are games this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve left a Mario question mark. We’re going to come back to this one.
But the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer to be talking us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in a hospice, I’ve never on my deathbed. But recently I did spend three months in bed, wanting die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell you story. It started two years ago, when I hit my head got 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. My told me that in order to heal my brain, I had rest it. So I had to avoid everything that my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — and I you see where this is going — no reason live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, but in seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens to one in three, and it to me. My brain started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never to get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And these voices so persistent and so persuasive that I started to legitimately fear my life, which is the time that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either to kill myself or I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? I from researching the psychology of games for more than a decade that when we play a — and this is in the scientific literature — we tackle tough challenges with creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out to others for help. wanted to bring these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created role-playing recovery game called Jane the Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new identity, and the first thing I did as a was call my twin sister — I have an identical twin sister named — and tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, I want you to play with me.” This was an easier to ask for help.
She became my first ally the game, my husband Kiyash joined next, and together identified and battled the bad guys. Now this was anything 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 feel just a little bit good, just a little productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the game was 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. It felt a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it the hardest year of my life by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even I 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. But not everybody has concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” so I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, started hearing from people all over the world who adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their videos that game was helping them in the same ways that it me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They about feeling better understood by their friends and family. And even talked about feeling happier, even though they were pain, even though they were tackling the toughest challenge of lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, is going on here? I mean, how could a game trivial intervene 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 and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was to us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which not something we usually hear about. We 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 springboard unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not afraid do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer to my friends and family.” “I understand better. I know who I really am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my and dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because top five traits of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of top five regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our ability to a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? do you get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a way to get all benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having hit your head in the first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s what learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically activities that you can do every day to build up these four of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to it.
I could tell you what these four types of 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 together. This is where you earn the seven and a half minutes bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have to is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And feel like you can do it. I have confidence in you.
So, ready? This is your first quest. Here we go. one: Stand up and take 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 the people doing both. You are overachievers. good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is worth +1 resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress and heal itself faster. We know the research that the number one thing you can to boost your physical resilience is to not sit still. That’s all it takes. Every second that you are not sitting still, you are actively improving the of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready your next quest? I want you to snap your exactly 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, 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. Bonus resilience. Well done, everyone. Now that’s worth +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 muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. So a tiny challenge without giving up, even one as absurd snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards 100 by seven is actually a scientifically validated way to 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, find a window and in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image for “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 what we 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 there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which we feel at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s a secret the scientific literature for you. If you can manage to experience three emotions for every one negative emotion over the course an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And this called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my favorite trick, so keep it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s for six seconds, or send someone a quick thank you by text, email, or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. Keep up. I love it! All right, everybody, that is +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a 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 oxytocin in your bloodstream, now that’s trust hormone. That means that all of you who just shook hands are biochemically to like and want to help each other. This will linger during the break, so advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your four quests, let’s if I’ve successfully completed my mission to give you seven and half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one more little bit of with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four types 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 for more than an hour at time, if you are reaching out to one person you care every single day, if you are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, you will 10 years 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 U.K. is 78.1 years, but 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 or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, every single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, like just did together, you are earning 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. You still 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 half minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if spend these seven and a half minutes today doing that makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, puts you in touch with someone you care about, or even tackling a tiny 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, every day of your life, all the way to deathbed, which will now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when you there, more than likely, you 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 have enough time to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)