I came across the concept of Problem State and Solution State when I was first exposed to Robert Dilts’ work. I later came to understand it as the way in which our emotional states drive our actions.
Emotions are the pre-requisites for our behaviors. Suppose you have an outcome of losing weight. In this case, you will need to shift the emotions you currently have that drive your eating behaviors.
If you are constantly in a state of compulsion, then you might find that you get overweight really fast. Conversely, weight loss becomes a bit easier if you have a compulsion for exercising and staying fit, while you reduce your desire to eat to an appropriate level.
Once you know what drives one behavior, you will know that you need to have a state change. But what state? This is the art of defining your solution state. If you know that fear keeps you from starting a business, but you want to do it, you know you need an emotion that is congruent with your goal. It could be many possible emotional states. Curiosity, determination, frutration are all emotional states that can drive you out of a comfort zone or from fear.
The important thing you need to bear in mind is that there’s no longer such as thing as a good or bad emotion – merely an appropriate or inappropriate one.
Recently, I worked with someone who had a lot of confusion in studying. So I got this person to tell me the outcome that was desired. As a student, this person wanted to score good grades. So, to test, we looked at emotions such as motivation. It didn’t t really work for her. I tested frustration from hearing her parents nagging at her to study. She seemed more affected by this – because she wanted to prove to her parents that she was better than they thought she was. Wow… frustration at people who disbelieved her capability really riled her into action.
Whenever you want to create change, always ask yourself what is an appropriate solution state that can drive you closer to your desired outcome.
To fully appreciate this, you need to study a little bit about submodalities and how you can control your emotional states.
