Kristen's Blog

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...

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,...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

One time I was in a fight with my boyfriend. Etched into my memory is him standing a few stairs above me yelling, “You over-analyze everything! All those graduate degrees made you into someone who thinks too much!”

It can be searing to be criticized for your Native Genius. But less so when you have some ways to weather the storm and come out on your own side.

What hurt about his comment is that he knew how much I cherished what I had studied. I mustered a deep truth and yelled...

Several years ago, I took a class for fun. Afterwards one of my fellow classmates, who was also taking the class for fun, said this to me,

“That one part was the hardest for me. That’s what I should practice.”

Do you do this too? Do you have some kind of experience — personal or professional — and then it’s like an automatic radar system immediately activates in your mind, honing in on the things you didn’t do well? Then you add these things to the...

Recently I was on the phone with a courier service. When I gave my credit card, which has my husband’s name on it, the dispatcher said, “Paul DesRosiers?! Did he used to be a bike messenger here?” I said, “Yes he did. You remember him?” He said, “Yes, gosh that was twenty years ago. He was a rockstar. One of our best ever.”

Contrast this with another job that Paul got fired from, on his first day.

You’ll see why in some roles you’ll be a...