Jesus' Stretch Goals

The secret to the success of many people is that they have "stretch" goals.

Atul Gawande is amazing.

In addition to being a surgeon in Boston, he is a professor at Harvard Medical School and a staff writer for The New Yorker. Plus, he has written three bestselling books and has received a MacArthur fellowship — a "genius grant."

Gawande is married with three children. In his free time, he directs a center for health systems innovation. He is also the chairman of a nonprofit organization which works to make surgery safer around the world. Gawande's latest book, Being Mortal, is "wise and deeply moving," according to the late Oliver Sacks, who was a physician and best-selling author.

On top of this, Gawande is humble. "I have never been a facile writer," he admits. "For me, the words come only slowly and after repeated effort." He thanks his wife Kathleen for helping him to find the right words.

Gawande is great at everything. Even humility. When confronted by such accomplishments, most of us feel inadequate. Even Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning...