Kristen Wheeler's Blog

When I make dinner, my husband Paul usually cleans up afterwards. One time I asked him, “Hey, I notice when you do the dishes, you don’t wipe the counters.” He said, “Yeah, I lose interest in the counters.”

My eyes almost popped out of my head! I thought, “You lose interest!? As if that’s a reason NOT to do something!” 😲

One of the reasons I am both a student and teacher of Native Genius is because I’m still trying to rid myself of the bad habit of giving MY-ALL to almost everything. Paul know...

Last week I found myself procrastinating on work that uses my Native Genius. I knew that it would be fun once I got into it. So why the procrastination?! You feel me on this? 

If you’re procrastinating, it doesn’t mean it’s NOT your Native Genius. If it makes your eyes light up, then something else is going on. 

Have you heard of “activation energy”? It means that it takes more energy to start something than to keep it going. We can thank chemists and behavioral scientists for helping us norma...

When Jane Goodall went on her first archeological dig in Africa, she wrote home telling her mom how she and others talked late into the night under the stars about what they were finding. She was in heaven. She’d found her people. 

Jane put herself in the universe of what fascinated her. When we do this, one of the magical things that happens is finding our people. That’s important because finding your people is one of the biggest bridges to doing what you love. 

After my first day of graduate...

...might not be what you think. 

It’s PERMISSION

Not from anyone else, but from you. 

Because permission starts with you (even though it may not end with you). 

Give yourself permission to do one thing that makes your eyes light up. 

What’s one tiny yes you’d like to let yourself say “yes” to? 

One night my husband, Paul, and I are watching a movie. He does something extraordinary that we all do, but most of us miss it. The movie is a coming-of-age story about a kid who starts a business buying nuts at Costco and reselling them. Some sales and cost numbers are mentioned in passing. Paul pauses the movie, as we often do, to add our personal commentaries. 

Within seconds, he’s done the math and tracked the character’s progress, “At that rate, he’ll make $9,000 by June.” I stare at him b...

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 ...

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...