Kristen Wheeler's Blog

A few nights ago my dad and I watched an interview* with the playwright of the new movie, In the Heights, talking about her success. A simple but pivotal element of Native Genius jumped out of the conversation.  

Quiara Alegría Hudes co-wrote the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights with Lin-Manuel Miranda before either was a movie.

Soon after In the Heights made it to Broadway, Hudes was standing in the theatre and someone asked her, “Now that it's a Broadway hit, are you living the ...

This week my husband Paul and I are getting a thingie installed in our house that circulates fresh air (an HRV for you HVAC geeks). We’ve looked at the diagram showing different ducting options many times because there were some strategic choices to be made. For the life of me, I cannot keep it all straight in my mind. Even though I understand it conceptually, I don’t retain it. I can finally remember the difference between the return and supply ducts, but that’s about it.

When it comes to this...

One day back in 2009, Glennon wrote a Facebook post called, “25 Things About Me.” She had seen other posts with the same title and was sick of her fake social life. While her baby took a nap, she let it rip. Her number six was, “I’m a recovering food and alcohol addict, but I still find myself missing food and booze in the same twisted way someone can still love a person who beats them and leaves them for dead.” Her friend’s number six was, “My favorite snack food is hummus.” 

Fast forward two ...

In a nutshell, here’s how you grow your Native Genius. It’s not as hard as we sometimes make it, but it does take faith and consistency.

You have the spark of something that lights you up. You want to give yourself to that thing a little more — whether it’s a new yoga class, a recipe, or some fascination at work.

If you haven’t been getting sparks lately, well it is Covid, but also your sparks may have gone dormant because you’re not listening. Pay attention to the smallest glimpses of fascina...

When Matthew McConaughey told his dad he wanted to be an actor, his dad said, "Is that really what you want to do?"

Matthew answered, “Yeah Dad, it is.” His dad said, "Well, don't half-ass it." From that day forward, Matthew never half-assed it in the movie business.

When Shawn Mendes told his dad he wanted to be a songwriter, his dad asked, "Well, can you write a song?" Shawn answered, “I don’t know.” His dad said, “Well go write a song.”

After that, Shawn says he’d sit in his room and play ...

Katherine Johnson remembers how she felt about math growing up, “I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed… anything that could be counted, I did.”

Katherine Johnson's Native Genius was insistent. So is yours.

Katherine worked as one of the first human computers in the early 1960s in the still segregated South. The presence of Black people, and certainly Black women, was rare in the sciences. Astronaut John Glenn...

A few years ago, my best friend’s dad had a stroke. She, her husband, and daughter happened to be visiting him in Hawaii at the time. It was the worst kind of roller coaster ride where they didn’t know if he was going to make it.

Gretchen was exhausted being at the hospital day and night, meeting with doctors, one day thinking he was going to make it, another day his condition looking pretty grim. What was supposed to be a two week trip turned into two months.

I was at home in Colorado at the ...

Have you ever noticed that some compliments make you feel like jumping up and down and some feel “meh”?

Have you ever considered that how you feel about the compliment might be linked to how much you enjoy doing the thing that evoked the compliment?

When someone says that I made a nice meal, I feel “meh.” When someone says I asked a great question, my heart sings.

When your heart sings at a compliment, I think of it as your Native Geniuses jumping up and down because someone saw them, recogni...

A client who first started working with me said, “I was on a hike the other day, and it was a great moment. I was in flow. But I know hiking isn’t my Native Genius. How do I know that?”

When we distinguish our Native Genius from other pleasurable experiences, we’re better able to direct ourselves towards that magic combination: the inner smile at our successes, being excited to go to work, and of course, making good money.

The difference between flow and Native Genius is this...we can be in fl...

When my dad was a toddler, my grandmother used to do tricks to make him left-handed. Her dad was left-handed and as a result, she had this notion that left-handedness was the grand marker of creativity. She wanted my dad to be left-handed.

When we have a fixed idea of good and try to make others or ourselves into that good, we can make a bit of a mess — in our relationships, our work, and in our hearts.

My grandmother did all manner of gyrations to get my dad to use his left hand. For example ...