Former Google chief reveals playing games is "the highest performance" he has ever achieved

Delving into the virtual world isn't often viewed as the most productive of activities, but a former Google X chief business officer has revealed how he considers playing games "the highest performance" he has ever achieved.

Speaking on episode 143 of the popular productivity podcast High Performance, Mo Gawdat said, "I am a very serious video gamer, very serious… The way I play, I promise you, is the highest performance I have ever achieved in life." He goes on to explain how he believes playing games allows us to obtain "total flow", a state of mind to which all creatives aspire. 

"It's the ability to tune into a game and move from the analytical, strategic, clever player to total flow," says Gawdat. "Total flow is to blend with the game of life. It's to literally let life tell you in microsecond intervals, 'take a little left, go this way, do that,' and believe it or not, that is the skill. If you've ever worked with very senior business leaders or very senior coaches, they no longer analyse, they're in flow, they're part of the flow of the game."

He joined Google in 2007, and in 2013, he moved to Google X, which focused on creating "moonshot" innovations to tackle some of the biggest problems affecting humanity today. Given his business successes, the fact he considers gaming a higher state of performance is high praise indeed.

Gawdat's love of games is particularly poignant as it comes from his son Ali, who sadly passed away in 2014, aged 21, whilst undergoing a routine medical procedure. His loss prompted Gawdat to leave Google and reinvent himself. He now has a best-selling book series which strives to help readers develop the tools to achieve happiness and inner peace and is on a mission to help one billion people become happier.

Forget life's worries and unwind with our pick of the best relaxing games.