I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special missions secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m to try to increase the life span of every single person this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and a half longer than you would have otherwise, just because you watched this talk.
Some you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it out — I have math prove that it is possible. It won’t make much 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 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 are bonus minutes. You 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, given that I have quite a habit of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. For example, in my TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 hours a week, as a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 billion hours, it’s a lot time. It’s so much time, in fact, that the number one unsolicited that I have heard from people all over the since I gave that talk, is this: Jane, games are and all, but on your deathbed, are you really going to you spent more time playing Angry Birds?
(Laughter)
This idea is so — 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 that 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 they spent playing, that 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 out 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 most frequently regrets that people say when they are literally on deathbeds. And that’s what I want to share with today — the top five regrets of the dying.
Number one: wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish had stayed in touch with my friends. Number three: wish I had let myself be happier. Number four: I wish I’d had the courage to express my self. And number five: I wish I’d lived a life true my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, one ever told one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent more time playing games,” but when I hear these top five regrets of dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human cravings that games actually help fulfill.
For example, I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. For many people, this means, wish I’d spent more time with my family, with my kids when they growing up. Well, we know that playing games together has family benefits. A recent study from Brigham Young University School of 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 in touch with my friends.” Hundreds 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 that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help us stay connected with people in our social that we would otherwise grow distant 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 trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that showed that online games can pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30 minutes online game play a day was enough to create dramatic boosts mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d had courage to express my true self.” Well, avatars are a way to express our true selves, most heroic, idealized version of who we might become. You can see that in this alter portrait by Robbie Cooper of a gamer with his avatar. And Stanford University has been doing research five years now to document how playing a game with idealized avatar changes how we think and act in real life, making more courageous, more ambitious, more committed to our goals.
“I I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not 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 to this one.
But in the meantime, perhaps you’re wondering, who is this game designer be talking to us about deathbed regrets? And it’s true, I’ve never worked in hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently did spend three months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting die.
Now let me tell you that story. It started two years ago, when I hit head and 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 to rest it. So I had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For that meant no reading, no writing, no video games, work or email, no running, no alcohol, no caffeine. In words — and I think you see where this is — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant be funny, but in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. happens to one in three, and it happened to me. brain started telling me, “Jane, you want to die.” said, “You’re never going to get better.” It said, “The pain never end.”
And these voices became so persistent and persuasive that I started to legitimately fear for my life, which is time that I said to myself after 34 days — and I will forget this moment — I said, “I am either going 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 decade that when we play a game — and this is in the scientific literature — tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re likely to reach out to 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 new secret identity, and the first thing I did as a slayer call my twin sister — I have an identical twin sister named Kelly — tell her, “I’m playing a game to heal my brain, and I want you to play me.” This was an easier way to ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my 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 healing process, like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected and activated power-ups. This was anything I could on even my worst day to feel just a little bit good, just little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog for 10 minutes, or getting of bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the game was that simple: Adopt a identity, recruit your allies, battle the bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a so simple, within just a couple days of starting play, that fog of depression and anxiety went away. It just vanished. It like a miracle. Now it wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the symptoms. That lasted for more than a year, and it the hardest year of my life by far. But when I still had the symptoms, even while I was in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with game surprised me. I 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, I hearing from people all over the world who were their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, and they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer chronic pain, depression and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for terminal diagnoses like ALS. And could tell from their messages and their videos that game was helping them in the same ways that helped me. They talked about feeling stronger and braver. They about feeling better understood by their friends and family. they even talked about feeling happier, even though they were in pain, even though were tackling the toughest challenge of their lives.
Now at the time, I’m thinking to myself, what going on here? I mean, how could a game so trivial intervene so powerfully in such serious, and 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 happier after traumatic event. And that’s what was happening to us.
The game was helping us experience scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something we hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists now know that a traumatic event doesn’t us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here are the top five things that 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. I know I really am now.” “I have a new sense meaning 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 of post-traumatic growth are essentially the direct opposite of the top regrets of the dying. Now this is interesting, right? seems that somehow, a traumatic event can unlock our to lead a life with fewer regrets.
But how does it work? How you get from trauma to growth? Or better yet, is there a way to get all the of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your head in first place? That would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the 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 activities that you can do every day to build up these four of resilience, and you don’t need a trauma to do it.
I could tell what these four types of strength are, but I’d rather experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all start building up together right now. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll play a quick game together. This where you earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that promised you earlier. All you have to do is successfully complete first four SuperBetter quests. And I feel like you can it. I have confidence in you.
So, everybody ready? is your first quest. Here we go. Pick one: Stand up and take steps, or make your hands into fists, raise them your head as high as you can for five seconds, go! 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 heal itself faster. We know from the research that number one thing you can do to boost your physical resilience is to not still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you are not sitting still, you actively improving the health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody 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 let the people counting down from 100 interfere with counting to 50.
(Snapping)
(Laughter)
Nice. Wow. That’s the time I’ve ever seen that. Bonus physical resilience. Well done, everyone. that’s worth +1 mental resilience, which means you have mental focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from the scientific research that willpower actually works like muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny without giving up, even one as absurd as snapping 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. Pick one: Because the room, fate’s really determined this for you, but here the two options. If you’re inside, find a window look out of it. If you’re outside, find a window look in. Or do a quick YouTube or Google image for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it on your phones, or shout out some baby animals, and I’ll put them the screen. So, what do we want to see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see we got. Baby dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody look. that? Okay, one more. Baby elephant.
(Audience) Oh!
We’re clapping for that? That’s amazing.
(Laughter)
All right, we’re just feeling there is plus-one emotional resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive like curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, you need them most.
Here’s a secret from the literature for you. If you can manage to experience three emotions for every one negative emotion over the course of hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully any problem you’re facing. And this is called the three-to-one positive emotion ratio. It’s my favorite SuperBetter trick, so it up.
All right, pick one, last quest: Shake someone’s 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. 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 to boost social 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, that’s the trust hormone. That means that all of you who just shook hands are primed to like and want to help each other. This will linger the break, so take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have completed your four quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my to give you seven and a half minutes of bonus life. Now I to share one more little bit of science with you. turns out that people who regularly boost these four types of resilience — physical, mental, emotional and — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So this is true. If you regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if you are sitting still for more than an hour at a time, you are reaching out to one person you care about every day, if you are tackling tiny goals to boost your willpower, will live 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 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that you can add 10 years of by boosting your four types of resilience. So every single year that you are your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 more years of life 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which means every day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, we just did together, you are earning 7.68245837 more minutes life.
Congratulations, those seven and a half minutes are yours. You totally earned them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You have your special mission, your secret mission. How are you going to these minutes of bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These and a half bonus minutes are kind of like genie’s wishes. You can use first wish to wish for a million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you spend these and 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, or even just tackling a challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re going to more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going that. Every hour of the day, every day of life, all the way to your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later it would have otherwise. And when you get there, 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. with 10 extra years, you might even have enough time to play a few games.
Thank you.
(Applause)