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I'm a gamer, so I like to have goals.

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I like special missions
and secret objectives.

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So here's my special mission
for this talk:

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I'm going to try to increase the life span
of every single person in this room

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by seven and a half minutes.

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Literally, you will live seven
and a half minutes longer

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than you would have otherwise,

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just because you watched this talk.

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Some of you are looking
a little bit skeptical.

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That's okay, because check it out --

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I have math to prove that it is possible.

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It won't make much sense now.

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I'll explain it all later,

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just pay attention
to the number at the bottom:

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+7.68245837 minutes.

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That will be my gift to you
if I'm successful in my mission.

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Now, you have a secret mission too.

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Your mission is to figure out
how you want to spend

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your extra seven and a half minutes.

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And I think you should do
something unusual with them,

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because these are bonus minutes.

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You weren't going to have them anyway.

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Now, because I'm a game designer,
you might be thinking to yourself,

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I know what she wants us to do
with those minutes,

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she wants us to spend them playing games.

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Now this is a totally
reasonable assumption,

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given that I have made quite
a habit of encouraging people

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to spend more time playing games.

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For example, in my first TED Talk,

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I did propose that we should spend
21 billion hours a week,

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as a planet, playing video games.

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Now, 21 billion hours, it's a lot of time.

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It's so much time, in fact,
that the number one unsolicited comment

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that I have heard from people
all over the world

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since I gave that talk, is this:

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Jane, games are great and all,
but on your deathbed,

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are you really going to wish you spent
more time playing Angry Birds?

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(Laughter)

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This idea is so pervasive --

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that games are a waste of time
that we will come to regret --

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that I hear it literally everywhere I go.

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For example, true story:

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Just a few weeks ago,

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this cab driver, upon finding out
that a friend and I were in town

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for a game developers' conference,

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turned around and said -- and I quote --

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"I hate games. Waste of life.

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Imagine getting to the end of your life
and regretting all that time."

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Now, I want to take
this problem seriously.

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I want games to be
a force for good in the world.

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I don't want gamers to regret
the time they spent playing,

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time that I encouraged them to spend.

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So I have been thinking about this
question a lot lately.

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When we're on our deathbeds,

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will we regret the time
we spent playing games?

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Now, this may surprise you,
but it turns out

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there is actually some scientific research
on this question.

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It's true.

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Hospice workers,

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the people who take care of us
at the end of our lives,

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recently issued a report
on the most frequently expressed regrets

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that people say when they are
literally on their deathbeds.

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And that's what I want
to share with you today --

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the top five regrets of the dying.

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Number one:

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I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

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Number two:

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I wish I had stayed
in touch with my friends.

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Number three:

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I wish I had let myself be happier.

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Number four:

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I wish I'd had the courage
to express my true self.

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And number five:

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I wish I'd lived a life true to my dreams,

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instead of what others expected of me.

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Now, as far as I know, no one ever
told one of the hospice workers,

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"I wish I'd spent more
time playing video games,"

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but when I hear these top five
regrets of the dying,

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I can't help but hear
five deep human cravings

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that games actually help us fulfill.

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For example, I wish
I hadn't worked so hard.

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For many people, this means,
I wish I'd spent more time

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with my family, with my kids
when they were growing up.

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Well, we know that playing games together
has tremendous family benefits.

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A recent study from Brigham
Young University School of Family Life

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reported that parents who spend more time
playing video games with their kids

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have much stronger
real-life relationships with them.

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"I wish I'd stayed in touch
with my friends."

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Hundreds of millions of people

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use social games like FarmVille
or Words With Friends

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to stay in daily contact
with real-life friends and family.

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A recent study from
the University of Michigan

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showed that these games are incredibly
powerful relationship-management tools.

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They help us stay connected
with people in our social network

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that we would otherwise grow distant from,

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if we weren't playing games together.

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"I wish I'd let myself be happier."

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Well, here I can't help but think
of the groundbreaking clinical trials

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recently conducted
at East Carolina University

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that showed that online games
can outperform

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pharmaceuticals for treating
clinical anxiety and depression.

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Just 30 minutes of online game play a day

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was enough to create
dramatic boosts in mood

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and long-term increases in happiness.

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"I wish I'd had the courage
to express my true self."

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Well, avatars are a way
to express our true selves,

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our most heroic, idealized
version of who we might become.

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You can see that in this alter ego
portrait by Robbie Cooper

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of a gamer with his avatar.

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And Stanford University has been
doing research for five years now

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to document how playing a game
with an idealized avatar

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changes how we think and act in real life,

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making us more courageous, more ambitious,

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more committed to our goals.

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"I wish I'd led a life true to my dreams,

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and not what others expected of me."

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Are games doing this yet?

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I'm not sure, so I've left
a Super Mario question mark.

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We're going to come back to this one.

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But in the meantime,
perhaps you're wondering,

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who is this game designer
to be talking to us

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about deathbed regrets?

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And it's true, I've never
worked in a hospice,

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I've never been on my deathbed.

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But recently I did spend
three months in bed, wanting to die.

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Really wanting to die.

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Now let me tell you that story.

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It started two years ago, when I hit
my head and got a concussion.

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The concussion didn't heal properly,

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and after 30 days, I was left
with symptoms like nonstop headaches,

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nausea, vertigo, memory loss, mental fog.

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My doctor told me that in order
to heal my brain,

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I had to rest it.

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So I had to avoid everything
that triggered my symptoms.

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For me that meant no reading,
no writing, no video games,

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no work or email, no running,
no alcohol, no caffeine.

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In other words -- and I think
you see where this is going --

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no reason to live.

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(Laughter)

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Of course it's meant to be funny,

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but in all seriousness,
suicidal ideation is quite common

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with traumatic brain injuries.

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It happens to one in three,
and it happened to me.

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My brain started telling me,
"Jane, you want to die."

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It said, "You're never going
to get better."

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It said, "The pain will never end."

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And these voices became
so persistent and so persuasive

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that I started to legitimately
fear for my life,

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which is the time that I said
to myself after 34 days --

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and I will never forget this moment --

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I said, "I am either going to kill myself

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or I'm going to turn this into a game."

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Now, why a game?

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I knew from researching the psychology
of games for more than a decade

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that when we play a game --

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and this is
in the scientific literature --

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we tackle tough challenges
with more creativity,

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more determination, more optimism,

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and we're more likely
to reach out to others for help.

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I wanted to bring these gamer traits
to my real-life challenge,

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so I created a role-playing recovery game

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called Jane the Concussion Slayer.

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Now this became my new secret identity,

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and the first thing I did as a slayer
was call my twin sister --

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I have an identical
twin sister named Kelly --

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and tell her, "I'm playing
a game to heal my brain,

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and I want you to play with me."

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This was an easier way to ask for help.

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She became my first ally in the game,

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my husband Kiyash joined next,

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and together we identified
and battled the bad guys.

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Now this was anything
that could trigger my symptoms

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and therefore slow down
the healing process,

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things like bright lights
and crowded spaces.

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We also collected and activated power-ups.

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This was anything I could do
on even my worst day

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to feel just a little bit good,

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just a little bit productive.

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Things like cuddling
my dog for 10 minutes,

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or getting out of bed and walking
around the block just once.

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Now the game was that simple:

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Adopt a secret identity,
recruit your allies,

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battle the bad guys,
activate the power-ups.

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But even with a game so simple,

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within just a couple days
of starting to play,

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that fog of depression
and anxiety went away.

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It just vanished. It felt like a miracle.

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Now it wasn't a miracle cure
for the headaches

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or the cognitive symptoms.

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That lasted for more than a year,

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and it was the hardest year
of my life by far.

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But even when I still had the symptoms,

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even while I was still in pain,
I stopped suffering.

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Now what happened next
with the game surprised me.

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I put up some blog posts
and videos online,

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explaining how to play.

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But not everybody
has a concussion, obviously,

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not everyone wants to be "the slayer,"

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so I renamed the game SuperBetter.

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And soon, I started hearing
from people all over the world

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who were adopting
their own secret identity,

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recruiting their own allies,
and they were getting "super better,"

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facing challenges
like cancer and chronic pain,

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depression and Crohn's disease.

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Even people were playing it
for terminal diagnoses like ALS.

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And I could tell from their messages
and their videos

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that the game was helping them
in the same ways that it helped me.

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They talked about feeling
stronger and braver.

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They talked about feeling better
understood by their friends and family.

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00:10:04,516 --> 00:10:07,059
And they even talked
about feeling happier,

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even though they were in pain,

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even though they were tackling
the toughest challenge of their lives.

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Now at the time, I'm thinking
to myself, what is going on here?

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I mean, how could a game
so trivial intervene so powerfully

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in such serious, and in some cases
life-and-death, circumstances?

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I mean, if it hadn't worked for me,

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there's no way I would have
believed it was possible.

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Well, it turns out
there's some science here, too.

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Some people get stronger and happier
after a traumatic event.

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And that's what was happening to us.

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The game was helping us experience

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what scientists call
post-traumatic growth,

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which is not something
we usually hear about.

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We usually hear about
post-traumatic stress disorder.

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But scientists now know
that a traumatic event

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doesn't doom us to suffer indefinitely.

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Instead, we can use it as a springboard

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to unleash our best qualities
and lead happier lives.

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Here are the top five things that people
with post-traumatic growth say:

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"My priorities have changed."

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"I'm not afraid to do
what makes me happy."

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"I feel closer to my friends and family."

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"I understand myself better.
I know who I really am now."

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"I have a new sense of meaning
and purpose in my life."

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"I'm better able to focus
on my goals and dreams."

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Now, does this sound familiar?

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It should, because the top five traits
of post-traumatic growth

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are essentially the direct opposite
of the top five regrets of the dying.

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00:11:36,343 --> 00:11:37,883
Now this is interesting, right?

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It seems that somehow, a traumatic event

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can unlock our ability to lead
a life with fewer regrets.

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But how does it work?

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00:11:46,111 --> 00:11:48,632
How do you get from trauma to growth?

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00:11:48,656 --> 00:11:51,407
Or better yet, is there a way
to get all the benefits

245
00:11:51,431 --> 00:11:53,928
of post-traumatic growth
without the trauma,

246
00:11:53,952 --> 00:11:56,381
without having to hit
your head in the first place?

247
00:11:56,405 --> 00:11:57,888
That would be good, right?

248
00:11:57,912 --> 00:12:00,287
I wanted to understand
the phenomenon better,

249
00:12:00,311 --> 00:12:03,502
so I devoured the scientific literature,
and here's what I learned.

250
00:12:03,867 --> 00:12:06,719
There are four kinds
of strength, or resilience,

251
00:12:06,743 --> 00:12:09,859
that contribute to post-traumatic growth,

252
00:12:09,883 --> 00:12:12,457
and there are scientifically
validated activities

253
00:12:12,481 --> 00:12:16,921
that you can do every day to build up
these four kinds of resilience,

254
00:12:16,945 --> 00:12:18,714
and you don't need a trauma to do it.

255
00:12:18,738 --> 00:12:21,324
I could tell you what these four
types of strength are,

256
00:12:21,348 --> 00:12:23,451
but I'd rather you
experience them firsthand.

257
00:12:23,475 --> 00:12:26,424
I'd rather we all start building them up
together right now.

258
00:12:26,448 --> 00:12:27,879
Here's what we're going to do.

259
00:12:27,903 --> 00:12:29,680
We'll play a quick game together.

260
00:12:29,704 --> 00:12:32,103
This is where you earn
the seven and a half minutes

261
00:12:32,127 --> 00:12:34,127
of bonus life that I promised you earlier.

262
00:12:34,151 --> 00:12:36,798
All you have to do
is successfully complete

263
00:12:36,822 --> 00:12:39,139
the first four SuperBetter quests.

264
00:12:39,163 --> 00:12:41,805
And I feel like you can do it.
I have confidence in you.

265
00:12:41,829 --> 00:12:43,189
So, everybody ready?

266
00:12:43,213 --> 00:12:45,476
This is your first quest. Here we go.

267
00:12:45,500 --> 00:12:48,232
Pick one: Stand up and take three steps,

268
00:12:48,256 --> 00:12:50,898
or make your hands into fists,
raise them over your head

269
00:12:50,922 --> 00:12:52,851
as high as you can for five seconds, go!

270
00:12:54,704 --> 00:12:56,689
All right, I like the people doing both.

271
00:12:56,713 --> 00:12:58,318
You are overachievers. Very good.

272
00:12:58,342 --> 00:12:59,411
(Laughter)

273
00:12:59,435 --> 00:13:00,458
Well done, everyone.

274
00:13:00,482 --> 00:13:02,618
That is worth +1 physical resilience,

275
00:13:02,642 --> 00:13:05,364
which means that your body
can withstand more stress

276
00:13:05,388 --> 00:13:06,903
and heal itself faster.

277
00:13:06,927 --> 00:13:08,238
We know from the research

278
00:13:08,262 --> 00:13:11,628
that the number one thing you can do
to boost your physical resilience

279
00:13:11,652 --> 00:13:12,928
is to not sit still.

280
00:13:12,952 --> 00:13:14,152
That's all it takes.

281
00:13:14,176 --> 00:13:17,372
Every single second
that you are not sitting still,

282
00:13:17,396 --> 00:13:20,164
you are actively improving
the health of your heart,

283
00:13:20,188 --> 00:13:21,497
and your lungs and brains.

284
00:13:21,806 --> 00:13:23,529
Everybody ready for your next quest?

285
00:13:24,180 --> 00:13:26,473
I want you to snap
your fingers exactly 50 times,

286
00:13:26,497 --> 00:13:30,000
or count backwards from 100
by seven, like this: 100, 93...

287
00:13:30,024 --> 00:13:31,037
Go!

288
00:13:31,061 --> 00:13:34,489
(Snapping)

289
00:13:34,513 --> 00:13:35,576
Don't give up.

290
00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:38,391
(Snapping)

291
00:13:38,415 --> 00:13:40,447
Don't let the people
counting down from 100

292
00:13:40,471 --> 00:13:42,177
interfere with your counting to 50.

293
00:13:42,201 --> 00:13:45,089
(Snapping)

294
00:13:45,113 --> 00:13:46,662
(Laughter)

295
00:13:46,686 --> 00:13:50,390
Nice. Wow. That's the first
time I've ever seen that.

296
00:13:50,414 --> 00:13:52,906
Bonus physical resilience.
Well done, everyone.

297
00:13:53,390 --> 00:13:55,476
Now that's worth +1 mental resilience,

298
00:13:55,500 --> 00:13:58,167
which means you have more
mental focus, more discipline,

299
00:13:58,191 --> 00:14:00,017
determination and willpower.

300
00:14:00,041 --> 00:14:01,829
We know from the scientific research

301
00:14:01,853 --> 00:14:03,980
that willpower
actually works like a muscle.

302
00:14:04,004 --> 00:14:06,755
It gets stronger the more you exercise it.

303
00:14:06,779 --> 00:14:10,131
So tackling a tiny challenge
without giving up,

304
00:14:10,155 --> 00:14:13,513
even one as absurd as snapping
your fingers exactly 50 times

305
00:14:13,537 --> 00:14:15,395
or counting backwards from 100 by seven

306
00:14:15,419 --> 00:14:18,991
is actually a scientifically validated way
to boost your willpower.

307
00:14:19,015 --> 00:14:20,993
So good job. Quest number three.

308
00:14:21,017 --> 00:14:24,281
Pick one: Because of the room,
fate's really determined this for you,

309
00:14:24,305 --> 00:14:25,689
but here are the two options.

310
00:14:25,713 --> 00:14:28,167
If you're inside,
find a window and look out of it.

311
00:14:28,191 --> 00:14:30,719
If you're outside,
find a window and look in.

312
00:14:30,743 --> 00:14:33,344
Or do a quick YouTube
or Google image search

313
00:14:33,368 --> 00:14:35,140
for "baby [your favorite animal.]"

314
00:14:35,164 --> 00:14:37,965
Do it on your phones,
or just shout out some baby animals,

315
00:14:37,989 --> 00:14:39,541
and I'll put them on the screen.

316
00:14:39,565 --> 00:14:41,021
So, what do we want to see?

317
00:14:41,045 --> 00:14:46,498
Sloth, giraffe, elephant, snake.
Okay, let's see what we got.

318
00:14:46,522 --> 00:14:51,219
Baby dolphin and baby llamas.
Everybody look.

319
00:14:51,775 --> 00:14:52,993
Got that?

320
00:14:53,017 --> 00:14:55,248
Okay, one more. Baby elephant.

321
00:14:55,272 --> 00:14:56,437
(Audience) Oh!

322
00:14:56,461 --> 00:14:57,922
We're clapping for that?

323
00:14:57,946 --> 00:14:59,130
That's amazing.

324
00:14:59,154 --> 00:15:00,246
(Laughter)

325
00:15:00,270 --> 00:15:03,769
All right, what we're just feeling there
is plus-one emotional resilience,

326
00:15:03,793 --> 00:15:06,295
which means you have the ability
to provoke powerful,

327
00:15:06,319 --> 00:15:08,777
positive emotions like curiosity or love,

328
00:15:08,801 --> 00:15:10,653
which we feel looking at baby animals,

329
00:15:10,677 --> 00:15:11,904
when you need them most.

330
00:15:11,928 --> 00:15:14,582
Here's a secret from the scientific
literature for you.

331
00:15:14,606 --> 00:15:18,307
If you can manage to experience
three positive emotions

332
00:15:18,331 --> 00:15:20,832
for every one negative emotion

333
00:15:20,856 --> 00:15:23,824
over the course of an hour, a day, a week,

334
00:15:23,848 --> 00:15:25,920
you dramatically improve your health

335
00:15:25,944 --> 00:15:29,504
and your ability to successfully tackle
any problem you're facing.

336
00:15:29,528 --> 00:15:32,783
And this is called the three-to-one
positive emotion ratio.

337
00:15:32,807 --> 00:15:35,465
It's my favorite
SuperBetter trick, so keep it up.

338
00:15:35,489 --> 00:15:37,560
All right, pick one, last quest:

339
00:15:37,584 --> 00:15:39,416
Shake someone's hand for six seconds,

340
00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:41,147
or send someone a quick thank you

341
00:15:41,171 --> 00:15:43,077
by text, email, Facebook or Twitter. Go!

342
00:15:43,101 --> 00:15:48,045
(Chatting)

343
00:15:48,069 --> 00:15:49,764
Looking good, looking good.

344
00:15:51,486 --> 00:15:52,691
Nice, nice.

345
00:15:53,565 --> 00:15:54,628
Keep it up.

346
00:15:55,347 --> 00:15:56,348
I love it!

347
00:15:56,372 --> 00:15:59,764
All right, everybody,
that is +1 social resilience,

348
00:15:59,788 --> 00:16:03,011
which means you actually get
more strength from your friends,

349
00:16:03,035 --> 00:16:05,132
your neighbors, your family,
your community.

350
00:16:05,156 --> 00:16:08,641
Now, a great way to boost
social resilience is gratitude.

351
00:16:08,665 --> 00:16:09,932
Touch is even better.

352
00:16:09,956 --> 00:16:11,483
Here's one more secret for you:

353
00:16:11,507 --> 00:16:13,752
Shaking someone's hand for six seconds

354
00:16:13,776 --> 00:16:16,788
dramatically raises the level
of oxytocin in your bloodstream,

355
00:16:16,812 --> 00:16:18,654
now that's the trust hormone.

356
00:16:18,678 --> 00:16:20,903
That means that all of you
who just shook hands

357
00:16:20,927 --> 00:16:24,315
are biochemically primed to like
and want to help each other.

358
00:16:24,339 --> 00:16:26,867
This will linger during the break,

359
00:16:26,891 --> 00:16:29,277
so take advantage
of the networking opportunities.

360
00:16:29,301 --> 00:16:30,347
(Laughter)

361
00:16:30,371 --> 00:16:33,077
Well, you have successfully
completed your four quests,

362
00:16:33,101 --> 00:16:35,504
let's see if I've successfully
completed my mission

363
00:16:35,528 --> 00:16:37,913
to give you seven and a half
minutes of bonus life.

364
00:16:37,937 --> 00:16:40,738
Now I get to share one more
little bit of science with you.

365
00:16:40,762 --> 00:16:44,922
It turns out that people who regularly
boost these four types of resilience --

366
00:16:44,946 --> 00:16:47,461
physical, mental, emotional and social --

367
00:16:47,485 --> 00:16:49,918
live 10 years longer than everyone else.

368
00:16:49,942 --> 00:16:51,004
So this is true.

369
00:16:51,028 --> 00:16:54,811
If you are regularly achieving
the three-to-one positive emotion ratio,

370
00:16:54,835 --> 00:16:57,962
if you are never sitting still
for more than an hour at a time,

371
00:16:57,986 --> 00:17:01,831
if you are reaching out to one person
you care about every single day,

372
00:17:01,855 --> 00:17:05,958
if you are tackling tiny goals
to boost your willpower,

373
00:17:05,982 --> 00:17:08,309
you will live 10 years longer
than everyone else,

374
00:17:08,333 --> 00:17:11,048
and here's where that math
I showed you earlier comes in.

375
00:17:11,072 --> 00:17:15,071
So, the average life expectancy
in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years,

376
00:17:15,095 --> 00:17:18,199
but we know from more than 1,000
peer-reviewed scientific studies

377
00:17:18,223 --> 00:17:21,818
that you can add 10 years of life
by boosting your four types of resilience.

378
00:17:21,842 --> 00:17:25,377
So every single year that you are boosting
your four types of resilience,

379
00:17:25,401 --> 00:17:27,650
you're actually earning
.128 more years of life

380
00:17:27,674 --> 00:17:32,223
or 46 more days of life,
or 67,298 more minutes of life,

381
00:17:32,247 --> 00:17:36,537
which means every single day,
you are earning 184 minutes of life,

382
00:17:36,561 --> 00:17:40,038
or every single hour that you are boosting
your four types of resilience,

383
00:17:40,062 --> 00:17:43,303
like we just did together,
you are earning 7.68245837

384
00:17:43,327 --> 00:17:44,398
more minutes of life.

385
00:17:44,422 --> 00:17:47,334
Congratulations, those seven
and a half minutes are all yours.

386
00:17:47,358 --> 00:17:48,834
You totally earned them.

387
00:17:48,858 --> 00:17:49,865
Yeah!

388
00:17:49,889 --> 00:17:51,183
(Applause)

389
00:17:51,207 --> 00:17:52,243
Awesome.

390
00:17:53,034 --> 00:17:54,292
Wait, wait, wait.

391
00:17:55,649 --> 00:17:58,780
You still have your special mission,
your secret mission.

392
00:17:58,804 --> 00:18:01,844
How are you going to spend
these minutes of bonus life?

393
00:18:01,868 --> 00:18:03,561
Well, here's my suggestion.

394
00:18:03,585 --> 00:18:07,203
These seven and a half bonus minutes
are kind of like genie's wishes.

395
00:18:07,227 --> 00:18:10,701
You can use your first wish
to wish for a million more wishes.

396
00:18:10,725 --> 00:18:11,772
Pretty clever, right?

397
00:18:11,796 --> 00:18:15,627
So, if you spend these
seven and a half minutes today

398
00:18:15,651 --> 00:18:18,261
doing something that makes you happy,

399
00:18:18,285 --> 00:18:20,004
or that gets you physically active,

400
00:18:20,028 --> 00:18:23,107
or puts you in touch
with someone you care about,

401
00:18:23,131 --> 00:18:25,940
or even just tackling a tiny challenge,

402
00:18:25,964 --> 00:18:29,589
you're going to boost your resilience,
so you're going to earn more minutes.

403
00:18:29,613 --> 00:18:32,068
And the good news is,
you can keep going like that.

404
00:18:32,092 --> 00:18:34,372
Every hour of the day,
every day of your life,

405
00:18:34,396 --> 00:18:35,804
all the way to your deathbed,

406
00:18:35,828 --> 00:18:38,781
which will now be 10 years later
than it would have otherwise.

407
00:18:39,081 --> 00:18:42,239
And when you get there, more than likely,

408
00:18:42,263 --> 00:18:45,779
you will not have
any of those top five regrets,

409
00:18:45,803 --> 00:18:48,652
because you will have built up
the strength and resilience

410
00:18:48,676 --> 00:18:51,359
to lead a life truer to your dreams.

411
00:18:52,136 --> 00:18:55,375
And with 10 extra years,
you might even have enough time

412
00:18:55,399 --> 00:18:57,318
to play a few more games.

413
00:18:57,342 --> 00:18:58,421
Thank you.

414
00:18:58,445 --> 00:19:00,900
(Applause)