Many a wannabe bestselling writer have poo-pooed Paulo Coelho's literature as infantile at best and mediocre at worst. That's OK. He may definitely not be everybody's favorite writer, but when you consider that his books have sold over 350 million copies, you know he has tapped into something.

That "something", in my opinion, has to do with his appreciation for what I call the "Understandings of the Right" in the Wish Design Workshop. He doesn't shy away from diving into the world of the unconscious mind, with its mysteries, symbolism and intuitiveness. Clearly, millions of readers want more and more of it.

There's a reason for that.

What is intuition?

Webster's Dictionary defines intuition as "instinctive knowing, without the use of rational processes." In other words, intuition is a kind of knowledge reached without resorting to rational or conscious capabilities. In a sense, it suggests that intuition is the direct grabbing of knowledge from reality or truth without reasoning your way to it.

Here are a few more words we often associate to intuition:

• impression
• sense
• instinct
• hunch
• suspicion
• empathy
• insight

We struggle with intuition because they can be challenging to justify to others. Has that ever happened to you?

How many times in your life have you had a sense that something unexplainable was going to happen, and you couldn't quite put your finger on it, but somehow you just knew? And then you shared it with others, and they asked you to justify it (because they couldn't "see" it), and you had a really hard time doing it?

We've become so addicted to rational justifications we often dismiss or reject intuitions out of hand because they simply do not fit into the neat narratives we've created about the world.

However, if you pause for a moment and examine how we first build our knowledge of the world, you notice that intuition is our natural path to knowledge. Instinctively, as babies, we knew what adults were our parents and which ones were not. We knew day wasn't night and pink wasn't yellow.

Aristotle himself proposed that intuition served as the cornerstone of science. He claimed that we humans first acquire knowledge from intuition rather than reasoning. Then, we build scientific models atop our intuitions in an attempt to describe or explain these them.

This suggests that conscious reasoning sits atop unconscious intuition, and points the door to how these two faculties of ours may interact constructively.

NLP Modeling and the structuring of intuitions

The #1 purpose of NLP Modeling is to translate unconscious intuitions into conscious structures so these intuitions can be distributed and utilized at scale.

The Meta Model of language in therapy perfectly exemplifies this process. Bandler and Grinder codified a model of the questions that Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir, two outstanding therapists, asked intuitively. Their model proved effective when they noted they could teach other therapists to become almost as effective as Perls and Satir by using it.

NLP Modeling helps human beings structure and codify their intuitions. As a discipline, it is designed to translate unconscious intuitions into conscious structures and codes. This insight suggest that, in any endeavor, we should first seek to build our intuition first before we seek to structure it into a codified model.

If you examine how an American child learns the English language, for instance, you'll notice it follows this process structure. By the time she is three or four, an American girl is already capable of intuitively speaking grammatically perfect English without ever laying eyes on a grammar book. If you offer a grammatically incorrect sentence to her, she will also intuitively let you know that you made a mistake in the way you speak. This will continue for years until she reaches middle and high school and starts studying the codified model of English grammar.

Our problem as adults is that we try to do everything backwards. We seek to first understand a codified model to only then attempt to develop intuitions. Unfortunately, the river doesn't flow in that direction.

The feedback loop between intuitions and models

I remember how Elaine, one of my modeling students, developed strong intuitions as a result of unconsciously absorbing patterns of excellence from her exemplar.

When the time came to begin the codification part of the modeling process, she let me know that she didn't want to go through with it for fear that it may disturb or destroy the intuitions she had developed.

As you know, the entire point of an NLP-generated model is to offer explicit, clear and consciously actionable instructions to achieve a result. Because of this, some people fear that the attempt to fit ethereal intuitions into a structure will destroy them.

My experience doesn't support this fear. Rather, I feel that a feedback loop exists between unconscious intuitions and conscious models. More than that, the process of distilling an intuitive process into an explicit one stimulates new intuitions.

As we develop rapport between left brain and right brain, we put in place a virtuous cycle in which intuition feeds coded models and coded models feed intuition.

The art of harmonizing the code with intuition

Whenever structure and code inhibits intuition, it is because the specific coded model we are using in that moment has misdirected attention, or because the structure of the code is not in harmony with the structure of the unconscious relationships that spawn intuitions in that context.

Our intuitions often come from how and where we place our attention. Conscious awareness can influence the way we direct our attention in ways that can stimulate (for instance, when we open up our perception to include more elements) or inhibit the development of our intuitions (for instance, when we're too self-conscious).

Similarly the code, or description, that we use to design a model of our intuitions may not be aligned with the form of our intuitions, and as a result, create problems.

The way out of this issue is always to change the code or the description used. The code is just a scaffolding that offers the general lines of how to do something. A piece of sheet music will not render all the nuances of Itzhak Perlman's rendition of the theme to Schindler's List.

The nuances are added on to a solid structure. The code, however, will give you a solid enough structure so that you can get the fundamentals right. Then, you can leverage your sensibility to add the nuance.

What NLP modeling offers is the ability to develop the intuition for nuance. During the dailyNLP Modeling Experience, many students start developing intuitions for the nuances that our exemplar offers.

When there is harmony between conscious structures and intuitive processes, the result is greater insights and the self-confidence that results from knowing what you are doing.

"Wax on... Wax off..."

To me, these four words (immortalized by Mr. Miyagi) symbolize the modeling process. In this article, I will break down five modeling lessons derived from a specific scene of The Karate Kid. Before we get started, watch the scene:

Lesson 1: There's a right way and a wrong way.

"Walk on road. Walk right side, safe. Walk left side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later, you get squished just like grape. Here, karate same thing. Either you karate do, yes, or karate do, no.
You karate do, "guess so", just like grape. Understand?"

Here, Mr. Miyagi imparts to Daniel that karate is a discipline. According to the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary, a discipline is "the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience."

There is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. If he practices karate the wrong way, Daniel will get hurt.

Likewise, NLP modeling is a discipline. It's not just a skill. There's a right way and many wrong ways to practice modeling. If you practice it the wrong way, you'll more than likely get hurt. In case you don't believe me, read these words from one of my readers:

Hi Martin,
Glad you started on the topic of safety, because I messed myself up pretty bad with it
In NLP I heard them talk about setting up a filter,
But nobody tells you how to do it
They also talk in hypnosis tons about how your unconscious will protect you and not go against your values and all this kind of stuff.
I've found it all not to be true.
I messed myself royally up through DTI and what you call modeling.
Nobody warned me and I never foresaw how it could mess up and derail my life.
I learned any suggestion can feel good even if its bad.
You can develop a state where anything that you put in it will have a "yes this will happen" and "mmmm this is a good feeling" type of quality attached to it, including very negative things.
My mind lost its ability to properly filter.

This is just one example of what can go wrong if you don't practice modeling in a disciplined, organized way.

Lesson 2: No understanding allowed.

"First make sacred pact. I promise teach karate. That my part. You promise learn. I say, you do, no questions. That your part. Deal?"

This is probably the most challenging part of modeling for all my students. Since they entered middle school, it's been drilled into them that the key to learning is understanding.

What this approach fails to realize, however, is we learn best by understanding AFTER we've learned how to do something — not before nor in order to do it.

Stop for a second and think back to how you learned to speak your native language. Did your parents sit you down and teach you grammar and vocabulary structures in order for you to express yourself?

Absolutely not.

You started studying grammar close to ten years after you were already speaking grammatically correct sentences in your native language.

You didn't understand how you learned the language, how you spoke it, or where it came from. And yet, you still learned to speak it.

How?

That's what the next lesson is about.

Lesson 3: Modeling is doing.

"First wash all the cars, then wax. Wax on right hand. Wax off left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out through mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don't forget to breathe. Very important."

To teach him karate, Mr. Miyagi offers Daniel a set of behavioral instructions for him to follow.

1. Wash all the cars.
2. Wax — wax on right hand, wax off left hand.
3. Breathe in through nose, out through mouth.

Modeling involves action from the very beginning. It's behavioral in nature. It's physical. You do not model in your mind. You do not think. You model by acting out, in the world.

This is where the Nike principle comes handy. "Just do it."

With learning a language, that's what you did. You modeled the speaking of those around you without having a clue as to what you were saying. You simply noticed that your utterances provoked certain reactions. Eventually, you started attributing meaning and understanding what you were saying.

Lesson 4: Zero confusion.

"Wax on, right hand make circle. Wax off, left hand make circle."

It's a simple instruction. Anyone could follow it.

Remember how Mr. Miyagi secures Daniel's commitment at the very beginning? "I say, you do, no questions." He doesn't allow questions because the task at hand is simple. If he allows questions, Daniel's mind will start complicating everything.

Likewise, modeling revolves around performing simple actions that we do not consciously understand. I always tell my students that the tasks they perform in modeling cannot require thinking or decision-making in order to be performed. Thinking or decision-making invites confusion, and confusion paralyzes action.

When modeling, thinking is the enemy.

Lesson 5: Over and over and over.

Mr. Miyagi asks Daniel to wash and wax a whole fleet of cars. This means "Wax on, wax off" hundreds of times. By so doing, Mr. Miyagi knows that Daniel will integrate the movement he prescribed.

The approach proves effective when Mr. Miyagi later asks Daniel to defend his punches using the "Wax on, wax off" movements. His student spontaneously executes them.

Modeling revolves around pattern recognition, and repetition activates our pattern recognition abilities. The more we perform an action, the more that action imprints onto our neurology and the more our unconscious optimization mechanisms go to work identifying the underlying pattern that makes it work. 

Questions?

Be sure to ask in the comments.