I love it when Louise Hay talks about how she discovered her own wisdom. As an abused child who didn’t have the support she needed to finish high school, she grew up with the notion that she wasn’t very smart. Looking at her today, it’s impossible not to smile at such a misguided idea. She discovered to her amazement and delight that she was smart indeed and capable of learning anything she needed and wanted to know—and of teaching others how to appreciate their own self-worth, too. Are you someone with the same ingrained notion that Louise had to heal from?

If you have come to believe you were shortchanged in the brains department, recognize how easily this can happen. Even if your parents were wise enough not to plant the seeds of self-doubt, you were probably enrolled in an educational system that assigned numbers to your intellectual capacity. A test gave you an IQ number to carry around for life. You developed a self-image based on what teachers, test scores, and academic performance indicated—you learned you were average at spelling, above average in art, but mentally challenged in mathematics. What you didn’t learn is that tests only measure how well you take tests! Soon you had a firm conviction that you just weren’t smart enough.

The fact is that since you’re a Divine creation who originated in the world of Spirit, you have exactly the right amount of smarts to accomplish all that you need and want to do while you’re here on earth. It’s all perfect…and so are you!

To me, a person like my son-in-law Joe, who can lay a beautiful hardwood floor and have it come out flawlessly, is a genius. Joe’s genius is displayed in his artistic sense—in that magnificent mind that arranges and positions the grain of the wood, leveling and sealing, with endless measurements and computations. You, too, have all the intelligence you need for anything that ignites your creative and problem-solving passion. Believe this about yourself and you’ll never say, “I’m not smart enough” again!