Funny how we sometimes fiercely resist our first steps in the right direction.

It can be surprisingly easy to be clueless about what you were born to do!

Almost a decade ago, I went back to school and was moving through a series of innovation residencies at the California College of the Arts. When it was time to explore user research, I was so resistant that I literally offered my classmates money to trade places with me! (That option was immediately squashed.)

Our first task was to conduct a series of ethnographies, which basically means studying people in their own environments to learn how they think and feel and behave in their natural surroundings. I watched (ahem, observed) people as they prepared to go food shopping, actually shopped, and then came home and unpacked.

It was instant love! I’ve been working in user research ever since. It fills my “curiosity tank” in a way nothing ever had. I’m a consummate learner, and in this field we constantly learn in a pretty structured and focused manner. In every interaction, my goal is to learn. My clients pay me to learn. It's awesome.

In hindsight, this was a terrific lesson. I wonder what else I’m resisting. How about you?

Funny how we sometimes fiercely resist our first steps in the right direction.