summary ofThe Checklist ManifestoBook by Atul Gawande, MD

first KEY POINT

Life never goes the way you plan

Despite your very best efforts, sometimes things just go wrong. You can try everything you think is going to work. You can plan for disaster and you can think that you’re avoiding problems, but in reality, failure is normal. It’s part of human life. So, no matter how much you plan your life and especially in the work you do, many things can and still do go wrong.

Atul Gawande is a surgeon by trade, yet has branched out his efforts to help people across the world learn how to improve their lives in several different ways. Bestselling author of “Complications” and “Better”, Gawande has experienced many near misses, failures and success in his surgical career. He notes that although all surgeons have their successes and failures, it’s the shock of the unexpected they talk about most.Gawande calls this “necessary fallibility”, basically meaning that we can’t control everything in life. Some things are just beyond our control and that opens our eyes to the fact that no matter how hard we train, how much knowledge we have, sometimes we’re going to make mistakes or simply fail.

Whilst many things in the world are still beyond our comprehension, it’s important to realize that as a human race, we’ve come a long way too and there are many things that we can strive towards. There is power in this statement because by accepting that sometimes things don’t go to plan and sometimes the unexpected can throw you totally off course, you can free yourself of unnecessary pressure and focus on doing your very best.Did you know? At least 4000 surgical errors occur in the USA every year.