John DeMartini, author of 40 books on personal development, was a success story no one expected. He literally did not know how to read well into his teenage years. He expected at the time that his career would go no further than working at a surf shop, but a chance encounter with alternative medicine pracitioner Paul C. Bragg led him to a breakthrough in his mindset. He had a vision of himself becoming a teacher one day, and he taught himself how to read and how to speak eloquently to achieve that goal.

Paul C. Bragg taught him an affirmation to say to himself every day: I am a genius when I apply my wisdom.” He used that wisdom to pass his G.E.D. exam. He used that wisdom to learn philosophy and reasoning skills. He used that wisdom to teach himself to speed read and how to absorb knowledge every day.

Having seen the success of this affirmation, when he was only an 18-year old student at Wharton, other students approached him and asked them to teach them the meditation and yoga practices that he did every day. As he taught more and more, he knew he had broken through when he heard another student whisper to another, “This guy’s a genius.”

He realized the power of that affirmation, and what’s more, he could create the life he wanted if he expanded that statement and lived his expanded affirmation every day. He wrote other affirmations and power statements, over 20 pages of them, and he keeps it on his computer and even updates it from time to time to this day.