Daniel ScottJanuary 15th, 2010

The Karate Kid has been remade for the new generation and is set to be released in June of 2010, starring Jackie Chan as Mr. Han — this new film’s “Mr. Miyagi.” Having viewed the trailers, however, it seems obvious that the basic premise remains the same.

For anyone unfamiliar with the original Karate Kid from 1984, Mr. Miyagi was the wise old master who taught the kid karate. Most notably, Mr. Miyagi was famous for giving the kid “chores” to do in return for teaching him to fight back against the local bullies. What wasn’t apparent at first was that the chores he was doing were actually techniques he would use in the act of self defense.

In the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming this is a very simplified (and direct) form of “Mapping.” The process of mapping in NLP is a way to transfer a skill or ability (along with the mental strategy/behavioral pattern) from one context to another. The key secret within using mapping in Mr. Miyagi’s style of teaching karate was to avoid the negative feelings one often feels in the process of learning — that sense of shame that comes with becoming consciously aware of one’s own incompetence.

As a person progresses through the learning cycle of Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence to Unconscious Competence, many kids will experience feelings of embarrassment and low self-esteem when they first try something and find they are unable to do it as easily, as effortlessly, and as well as the teacher (or as well as other students). However, for everyone who has seen the original Karate Kid movie, you’ll remember that the kid did things like painting a fence, waxing cars, sanding a deck and painting Mr. Miyagi’s fence. The physical movements of these tasks were then mapped across to the context of martial arts in the form of karate blocks.

Now, if you broaden the definition of “behaviors” to include things such as mental and emotional states, beliefs, decision making, learning, understanding, creativity, etc. it becomes possible to map neuro linguistic patterns across almost any context. If you are unable to find creative solutions easily and effortlessly at work, but you can solve logic puzzles in internet flash games, then NLP allows you to map that mental strategy from games to work — without the need to go through the process of unconscious incompetence or conscious competence. The same applies to things like believing you can do something (i.e. confidence). Your trust and belief in your abilities can be mapped across to other situations where you know everything you need to know, but you suffer from fear of failure.

Mapping does have limits, however. The concern is that whatever you are mapping requires you to have ALL the pieces. Just because you can confidently operate a car doesn’t mean you can simply map those skills across and suddenly be able to fly a fighter jet. The key is to take something you know and apply it to things you already have the knowledge to do. In the case of Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi wasn’t teaching the kid to paint a fence; he was making sure he had the competence of painting a fence. Only then could he be certain it would map across to karate — all the movements, skills, and abilities used in working with the paint brush were identical to the movements, skills, and abilities to do that form of block in karate.

How many inherent skills do YOU have that you don’t even realize yet? What else do you think you could accomplish if you figured out the skills you already have, and applied them to something new? The process of figuring out HOW you do things, as well as how to use them in other situations, is a large part of any good NLP Practitioner training program.

Perhaps it’s possible… you may already know how to catch a fly with chopsticks.

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