Mo Gawdat: Why I'm Becoming A 'Half-Monk'

I’m honoured to introduce this week’s guest, Mo Gawdat – an author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, former chief business officer at Google X and one of the most innovative thinkers I’ve ever come across.‘I only allow my brain two different types of thought: a useful thought, or a joyful thought, or it shuts up’ – this quote from the podcast is typical of Mo’s logical approach to his inner world. While we discuss familiar topics like meditation, journaling and solitude in this topic, Mo’s perspective is particularly refreshing in the sense that he goes back to Square One, and forms an original opinion on each of these practices rather than simply following the approach that others have taken before him. It’s this compelling combination of a sharp engineering mind, combined with childlike curiosity, emotional intelligence and a good deal of humour and wit that makes Mo so special – and I think you’ll know what I mean when you listen to this episode.Key topics include:Mo’s fascinating ‘half-monk’ conceptThe value of ‘being’ as well as ‘doing’Why Mo loves to form connections with baristasHow Mo’s late son Ali inspired his happiness conceptThe dark side of journaling: how it can lead to ruminating on unhelpful thoughts, and what to do to counteract thisMo Gawdat's latest book, Scary Smart, is available to buy now. His book, Solve For Happy: Engineer Your Path To Joy, is also available to buy.My book, Alonement: How To Be Alone and Absolutely Own It, is also out now from Amazon, Waterstones and all good bookshops. Social links:Twitter:*  @ChezSpecter*@MGawdatInstagram: @alonementofficial*@ChezSpecter*@mo_gawdat*Contact: [email protected] With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.