I’m a gamer, so I like have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going try to increase the life span of every single person in this room by seven a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some of you are a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — have math to prove that it is possible. It won’t much sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to the number the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. That will be my gift to 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 a minutes. And I think you should do something unusual with them, because these are bonus minutes. weren’t going to have them anyway.
Now, because I’m game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, I know what she wants to do with those minutes, she wants us to them playing games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, that I have made quite a habit of encouraging people spend more time playing games. For example, in my first TED Talk, I did propose that we spend 21 billion hours a week, as a planet, video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited comment I have heard from people all over the world I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are great all, but on your deathbed, are you really going to wish you spent more playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so pervasive — that games a waste of time that we will come to regret — I hear it literally everywhere I go. For example, true story: Just a few weeks ago, cab driver, upon finding out that a friend and I were in town for a game developers’ conference, 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 problem seriously. I want games to be a force for good in world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time spent playing, time that I encouraged them to spend. So I have thinking about this question 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 scientific research on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the who take care of us at the end of our lives, recently issued a on the most frequently expressed regrets that people say they are literally on their deathbeds. And that’s what I want share with you today — the top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: wish I hadn’t worked 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. And number five: I wish I’d lived a true to my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as far I know, no one ever told one of the 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 deep human cravings that games actually help us fulfill.
For example, I I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, I wish I’d spent time with my family, with my kids when they growing up. Well, we know that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A recent from Brigham Young University School of Family Life reported that parents who spend time playing video games with their kids have much stronger real-life with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” of millions of people use social games like FarmVille or Words Friends to stay in daily contact with real-life friends 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 games together.
“I wish I’d let myself be happier.” Well, I can’t help but think of the groundbreaking clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina that showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals for clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes of online game a day was enough to create dramatic boosts in mood and long-term in happiness.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self.” Well, avatars are way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can that in this alter ego portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research for five years now to how playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how we think and act in life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, more committed our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, not what others expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, so I’ve a Super Mario question mark. We’re going to come back to this one.
But in the meantime, you’re wondering, who 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 bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me tell you story. It started two years ago, when I hit my head and got concussion. The concussion didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, was left with symptoms like nonstop headaches, nausea, vertigo, loss, mental fog. My doctor told me that in order heal my brain, I had to rest it. So I had to avoid that triggered my symptoms. For me that meant no reading, no writing, video games, no work or email, no running, no alcohol, caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where this is — 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 to in three, and it happened to me. My brain started me, “Jane, you want to die.” It said, “You’re never going get better.” It said, “The pain will never end.”
And voices became so persistent and so persuasive that I to legitimately fear for my life, which is the that I said to myself after 34 days — and I never forget this moment — I said, “I am either to kill myself or I’m going to turn this a game.”
Now, why a game? I knew from researching the 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 a role-playing recovery game 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 an identical twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, I want you to play with me.” This was an easier way ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my husband Kiyash next, and together we identified and battled the bad guys. Now this anything that could trigger my symptoms and therefore slow down the healing process, like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected 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 cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and around the block just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt 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 to play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That lasted for more than year, and it was the hardest year of my life by far. But even when I still had symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I suffering.
Now what happened next with the game surprised me. put up some blog 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, started hearing from people all over the world who were adopting 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 playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their that the game was helping them in the same that it helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They talked about feeling better understood their friends and family. And they even talked about feeling happier, even though 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 on here? mean, how could a game so trivial intervene so in such serious, and in some cases life-and-death, circumstances? mean, if it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way would have believed it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some science here, too. Some 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 hear post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic event doesn’t doom to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My have changed.” “I’m not afraid to do what makes me happy.” “I closer to my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I am now.” “I have a new sense of meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m able to focus on my goals and dreams.”
Now, does 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? It seems that somehow, traumatic event can unlock our ability to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how it work? How do you get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a 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 the scientific literature, here’s what I learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that to post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that can do every day to build up these four kinds resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could 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 going to do. We’ll play a game together. This is where you earn the seven a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. All you have do is successfully complete the first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel you can do it. I have 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 as high as you can for five seconds, go! All right, I like the people doing both. are overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand more stress and itself faster. We know from the research that the number thing you can do to boost your physical resilience is to not still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that are not sitting still, you are actively improving the of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody ready for your quest? I want you to snap your fingers exactly 50 times, count backwards from 100 by 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 I’ve ever seen that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. that’s worth +1 mental resilience, which means you have more mental focus, discipline, determination and willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny without giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 or counting backwards from 100 by seven is actually a 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 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 quick YouTube or image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put on the screen. So, what do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s what we got. Baby 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 is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the to provoke powerful, positive emotions like curiosity or love, which feel looking at baby animals, when you need them most.
Here’s secret from the scientific literature for you. If you manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion over the course of hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your health and your ability to 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 for six seconds, send someone a quick thank you by text, email, or Twitter. Go!
(Chatting)
Looking good, looking good. Nice, nice. it up. I love it! All right, everybody, that +1 social resilience, which means you actually get more from your friends, your neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great to boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s one more secret for you: 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 shook hands are biochemically primed to like and want help each other. This will linger during the break, so take advantage of networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to give seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I get to share one little bit of science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than else. So this is true. If you are regularly achieving 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 you care about every single day, if you are tackling goals to boost your willpower, you will live 10 years longer everyone else, and here’s where that math I showed you earlier comes in.
So, the average life in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, we know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies you can add 10 years of life by boosting four types of resilience. So every single year that you are boosting your four of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life or 46 more of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every single day, you 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 a half minutes all yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still your special mission, your secret mission. How are you going spend these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use first wish to wish for a million more wishes. clever, right? So, if you spend these seven and half minutes today doing something that makes you happy, that gets you physically active, or puts you in touch with someone you care about, even just tackling a tiny challenge, you’re going to boost resilience, so you’re going to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep like that. Every hour of the day, every day your life, all the way to your deathbed, which now be 10 years later than it would have otherwise. And when you get there, more likely, you will not have any of those top five regrets, because you will have built up strength and resilience to lead a life truer to your dreams. And with 10 years, you might even have enough time to play a more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)