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Leo Babuta just wrote a wonderful post on Zen Habits called “The Best Goal Is No Goal.” In it he says:

[W]ake up and do what you’re passionate about. For me, that’s usually blogging, but it can be writing a novel or an ebook or my next book or creating a course to help others or connecting with incredible people or spending time with my wife or playing with my kids. There’s no limit, because I’m free. In the end, I usually end up achieving more than if I had goals, because I’m always doing something I’m excited about. But whether I achieve or not isn’t the point at all: all that matters is that I’m doing what I love, always. I end up in places that are wonderful, surprising, great. I just didn’t know I would get there when I started.

It sounded similar to a conversation I’d had with a friend, in which I said:

Try not to worry about What You’re Doing With Your Life. What you ARE doing right now is massive and not everybody can do it. Appreciate that you’re lucky enough to be able to do this right now. Do it and make the most of it. The next phase of life will come along, but this is where you are now. Maybe this phase doesn’t show you the next step, but it’s still pretty cool the way it is. That’s what I try to tell myself, anyway. I have so many blessings, and while there are some that I’d like to see ahead of me, I have to trust that this feels right because it IS right, and the next door will open at the right time.

Except that, while I might sound all smart and together, you may have noticed, as I have, that it’s an awful lot easier to give advice than to really live it, and an awful lot easier to say you’re doing something, than to do it every day. Also, it’s a lot easier to talk in generalities, as I was, than in specifics, as Leo goes on to do in his post.

Sitting still and just being. Appreciating. Going through the day without a to-do list and listening to what your brain and heart are telling you.

Being without goals is in itself a worthy goal. For Leo, for my wonderful friend, but most of all, for me.

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I can’t stand Davidoff Cool Water cologne.

It’s got nothing to do with whether or not it actually smells bad. Not really. To me, it smells like a kid who sat in front of me in high school who was mean to my friends. He’s probably grown up to be perfectly nice. People tend to. But I still hate that smell.

Then there’s some other cologne. Abercrombie & Fitch Woods, I think. It isn’t that it smells very good. I don’t think it really does. But it has… nicer memories.

Anyway.

I had some conversations this week about smells. There are some you love, some you hate, and some that just mean a lot. Smells are memories, and they’ve got such strong emotions attached to them.

That’s been making me think about the things you choose to smell like. I realized that you could chart out your life by the scents you wore. It’s a personality history in little bottles.

Here’s mine, as much as I can remember. The theory works pretty well for me.

Love’s Baby Soft (I think there was a law decreeing it My First Perfume)
Coty Vanilla Fields (…for years)
Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers
Clinique Happy (…and years)
Carolina Herrera
Vera Wang
Marc Jacobs
Thierry Mugler Angel (…and years)

…and lately, I’ve been switching among Burberry Brit or Jo Malone Vintage Gardenia in the summer, and Burberry London or Jo Malone Nutmeg & Ginger in the winter. But mostly the Vintage Gardenia.

I’m going to look a lot more carefully at people’s dressers and sink vanities, now.

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The phlebotomist who waxed lyrical about Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, and went positively into raptures about the possibility of getting her own copy for Christmas.

The historian who finds out what people centuries ago snacked on, or what kind of shoelaces they wore, or what kind of curse words they used.

The pet-store clerk who spent 10 minutes lecturing on Labrador puppies, flushable cat litter, and how to help a shedding gecko peel off its skin, all while demonstrating the latter with infinite care.

The trainer who never loses an opportunity to educate people about healthier choices.

My coworkers, who make – and laugh at – puns in interventional cardiology terminology.

The chemical engineer who, while cooking an amazing meal, who will describe the viscosity of a sauce both in terms of its taste and in terms of its molecular structure.

I love these people. I need these people. The world needs these people.

The world needs people who care passionately about things. People who light up like Christmas at the chance to talk in detail about the things they care about. Crazy things. Silly things. Obscure things, ridiculously complex things, recklessly dangerous, utterly mundane, seemingly unimportant things. The world needs people who throw their hearts into what they do.

The world needs geeks.

Otherwise, how would the rest of us learn?

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