I’m gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special and 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 seven and a half minutes longer than you would have otherwise, just because you this talk.
Some of you are looking a little bit skeptical. That’s okay, because check it — I have math to prove that it is possible. It won’t make sense now. I’ll explain it all later, just pay attention to the number at the bottom: +7.68245837 minutes. will be my gift to you if I’m successful in my mission.
Now, you have secret mission too. Your mission is to figure out how you want to spend your seven and a half minutes. And I think you should do something unusual them, because these are bonus minutes. You weren’t going to have anyway.
Now, because I’m a game designer, you might be thinking to yourself, know what she wants us to do with those minutes, she wants us to spend them games. Now this is a totally reasonable assumption, given that I have made quite a of encouraging people to spend more time playing games. For example, in first TED Talk, I did propose that we should spend 21 hours a week, as a planet, playing video games.
Now, 21 hours, it’s a lot of time. It’s so much time, fact, that the number one unsolicited comment that I heard from people all over the world 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 is so pervasive — that games are a waste time that we will come to regret — that I hear it everywhere I 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 life. Imagine getting to the end of your life and all that time.”
Now, I want to take this problem seriously. I want games to be a force good in the world. I don’t want gamers to regret the time they spent playing, time I encouraged them to spend. So I have been thinking about question a lot lately. When we’re on our deathbeds, we regret the time we spent playing games?
Now, this may you, but it turns out there is actually some scientific on this question. It’s true. Hospice workers, the people who take care of us at the end our lives, recently issued a report on the most frequently expressed regrets that people when 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: I I hadn’t worked so hard. Number two: I wish I had stayed touch with my friends. Number three: I wish I had let myself 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 my dreams, instead of what others expected of me.
Now, as far as I know, no one told one of the hospice workers, “I wish I’d spent time playing video games,” but when I hear these five regrets of the dying, I can’t help but hear five deep human 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 more time my family, with my kids when they were growing up. Well, know that playing games together has tremendous family benefits. A study from Brigham Young University School of Family Life that parents who spend more time playing video games with their kids have much real-life relationships with them.
“I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.” Hundreds of millions of use social games like FarmVille or Words With Friends stay in daily contact with real-life friends and family. A recent study from the of Michigan showed that these games are incredibly powerful relationship-management tools. They help stay connected with people in our social network that we would otherwise grow distant from, if weren’t playing games together.
“I wish I’d let myself happier.” Well, here I can’t help but think of the clinical trials recently conducted at East Carolina University that 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 in mood and long-term increases in happiness.
“I wish I’d the courage to express my true self.” Well, avatars a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of we might become. You can see that in this alter ego 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 an idealized avatar changes how we think and in real life, making us more courageous, more ambitious, committed to our goals.
“I wish I’d led a life true to my dreams, and not what expected of me.” Are games doing this yet? I’m not sure, I’ve left a Super Mario question mark. We’re going to back to this one.
But in 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 a hospice, I’ve never been on my deathbed. But recently I did spend months in bed, wanting to die. Really wanting to die.
Now let me you that story. It started two years ago, when I my 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 doctor told me that in order to heal brain, I had to rest it. So I had to avoid everything that triggered my symptoms. For me meant no reading, no writing, no video games, no work or email, no running, alcohol, no caffeine. In other words — and I think you see where this going — no reason to live.
(Laughter)
Of course it’s meant to be funny, in all seriousness, suicidal ideation is quite common with traumatic brain injuries. It happens one in three, and it happened to me. My started telling 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 to legitimately fear for my life, which is the that I said to myself after 34 days — I will never forget this moment — I said, “I am either going to kill or I’m going to turn this into a game.”
Now, why a game? 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 with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, we’re more likely to reach out to others for help. I wanted to these gamer traits to my real-life challenge, so I created a role-playing recovery game called Jane Concussion Slayer.
Now this became my new secret identity, and the first thing I did as a was call my twin sister — I have an twin sister named Kelly — and tell her, “I’m playing a game heal my brain, and I want you to play with me.” This was easier way to ask for help.
She became my first ally in the game, my husband joined next, and together we identified and battled the guys. Now this was anything that could trigger my and therefore slow down the healing process, things like bright lights and crowded spaces. We also collected activated power-ups. This was anything I could do on my worst day to feel just a little bit good, a little bit productive. Things like cuddling my dog 10 minutes, or getting out of bed and walking around the block just once.
Now the game was simple: Adopt a secret identity, recruit your allies, battle bad guys, activate the power-ups. But even with a so simple, within just a couple days of starting to play, that fog of depression and anxiety away. It just vanished. It felt like a miracle. Now wasn’t a miracle cure for the headaches or the cognitive symptoms. That for more than a year, and it was the year of my life by far. But even when I still had the symptoms, even while I still in pain, I stopped suffering.
Now what happened next with the game me. I put up some blog posts and videos online, explaining how to play. But everybody has a concussion, obviously, not everyone wants to be “the slayer,” I renamed the game SuperBetter.
And soon, I started from people all over the world who were adopting their own secret identity, recruiting their own allies, they were getting “super better,” facing challenges like cancer and chronic pain, and Crohn’s disease. Even people were playing it for diagnoses like ALS. And I could tell from their messages and their that the game was helping them in the same ways it 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 in pain, even though they were tackling the toughest challenge of 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? I mean, it hadn’t worked for me, there’s no way I would have it was possible. Well, it turns out there’s some here, too. Some people get stronger and happier after a traumatic event. And that’s what was happening us.
The game was helping us experience what scientists call post-traumatic growth, which is not something usually hear about. We usually hear about post-traumatic stress disorder. But scientists know that a traumatic event doesn’t doom us to indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.
Here the top five things that people with post-traumatic growth say: “My priorities have changed.” “I’m not to do what makes me happy.” “I feel closer my friends and family.” “I understand myself better. I know who I really am now.” “I have new sense of meaning and purpose in my life.” “I’m better able to focus on my goals dreams.”
Now, does this sound familiar? It should, because the top five of 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 does work? How do you get from trauma to growth? Or yet, is there a way to get all the benefits post-traumatic growth without the trauma, without having to hit your head in the first place? would be good, right?
I wanted to understand the better, so I devoured the scientific literature, and here’s I learned. There are four kinds of strength, or resilience, that contribute post-traumatic growth, and there are scientifically validated activities that you can every day to build up these four kinds of resilience, and you don’t a trauma to do it.
I could tell you what these four types of are, but I’d rather you experience them firsthand. I’d rather we all building them up together right now. Here’s what we’re going do. We’ll play a quick game together. This is where earn the seven and a half minutes of bonus life that I promised you earlier. 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. Pick one: Stand up take three steps, or make your hands into fists, them over your head as high as you can five seconds, go! All right, I like the people doing both. You overachievers. Very good.
(Laughter)
Well done, everyone. That is +1 physical resilience, which means that your body can withstand stress and heal itself faster. We know from the research that the number one thing can do to boost your physical resilience is to not still. That’s all it takes. Every single second that you are not still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, and your lungs and brains.
Everybody for your next quest? I want you to snap your exactly 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, like this: 100, 93… Go!
(Snapping)
Don’t up.
(Snapping)
Don’t let the people counting down from 100 interfere with 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 focus, more discipline, determination and willpower. We know from scientific research that willpower actually works like a muscle. It stronger the more you exercise it. So tackling a tiny challenge giving up, even one as absurd as snapping your fingers exactly 50 times or counting backwards from 100 seven is actually a scientifically validated way to boost willpower.
So good job. Quest number three. Pick one: Because 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 image search for “baby [your favorite animal.]”
Do it your phones, or just shout out some baby animals, and I’ll them on the screen. So, what do we want see? Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake. Okay, let’s see what we got. dolphin and baby llamas. Everybody 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 resilience, which means you have the ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions curiosity or love, which we feel looking at baby animals, when need them most.
Here’s a secret from the scientific literature for you. If you can manage experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion the course of an hour, a day, a week, you dramatically improve your health your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing. And 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 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 is +1 social resilience, means you actually get more strength from your friends, neighbors, your family, your community. Now, a great way boost social resilience is gratitude. Touch is even better.
Here’s more secret for you: Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds dramatically 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, take advantage of the networking opportunities.
(Laughter)
Well, you have successfully completed your quests, let’s see if I’ve successfully completed my mission to give you seven and a half of bonus life. Now I get to share one more little bit science with you. It turns out that people who regularly boost these four types of — physical, mental, emotional and social — live 10 years longer than everyone else. So this true. If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio, if are never sitting still for more than an hour a time, if you are reaching out to one person you care about single day, if you are tackling tiny goals to your willpower, you will live 10 years longer than everyone else, and here’s where math I showed you earlier comes 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 that you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So single year that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you’re actually earning .128 years of life or 46 more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes life, which means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or every single hour that 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 are all yours. You totally them.
Yeah!
(Applause)
Awesome. Wait, wait, wait. You still have your special mission, secret mission. How are you going to spend these minutes bonus life?
Well, here’s my suggestion. These seven and a half bonus minutes are of like genie’s wishes. You can use your first wish to wish for million more wishes. Pretty clever, right? So, if you these seven and a half minutes today doing something makes you happy, or that gets you physically active, or you in touch with someone you care about, or even just a tiny challenge, you’re going to boost your resilience, so you’re to earn more minutes.
And the good news is, you can keep going like that. Every hour of day, every day of your life, all the way your deathbed, which will now be 10 years later it would have otherwise. And when you get there, more than likely, you not have any of those top five regrets, because you will built up the strength and resilience to lead a truer to your dreams. And with 10 extra years, you might even enough time to play a few more games.
Thank you.
(Applause)