A problem, challenge, obstacle or is it simply a decision?
There are many labels we can use to understand the psychology of a person as to how someone has perceived a problem. Is a problem really a problem or is it how you’ve perceived it that’s caused it to be a problem?
You see, the way you think will determine and the quality of your thoughts and in turn determines the perception you create. Whether you perceive a problem or not, a problem is simply a way of thinking positive or negative until you label it as a problem. This might be hard to swallow but every conflict you experience, any outburst you respond to or challenge you are hit up against… you actually created it.
A keep concept that is taught in the Elite Leadership NLP Certification Training at The Conscious CEO, is “Perception is Projection”. Now, this is not a traditional NLP concept. This comes from a well-known psychologist Carl G. Jung He coined this term and described it as a state of mind and a way of thinking in order for a person to grow and to change their perception of what they perceive as a problem.
The key component to identify a perceived “problem” is whether are in a state of incongruency. What is congruency? Whereby you are aware of your thoughts and behaviours, and you are in complete control of your state at all time. So incongruency is the polar opposite. Think of a time when you’ve been in a problem when you’ve felt stuck, frustrated, in denial of consequences and has produced possibly assumptions and therefore resulting in distorted awareness.
In the business work, I have seen all-too-common leaders addressing the problem-based on others, the environment or the economy etc. I hear problems of a lack of consistent cash flow, poor lead generation or a painfully low sales conversion rate. Here is the thing, the first person who needs to be addressed is the leader themselves. Now don’t get me wrong there may be other factors other than them that need to be addressed however the majority of businesses perceives the problems to be of someone else. Now, these concerns appear valid and absolutely however what many coaches do is deal with the problem at hand as is rather than looking at the deeper structure of a problem.
What is mean by deep structure?
As humans, we leave a lot of information out well from 11 million bits we only taking 126 bits of information. So you get the picture as to how little is really perceive. There is a deeper meaning that is associated with the surface structure of a problem. Just like the roots of a tree one must identify the deep root structure to get to the cause of the problem. We simply move from abstract to concrete to get to the deeper meaning of a perceived problem.
You might be thinking, well how do I identify the deep structure of my problem? Great question!
There are a number of tools and techniques using linguistics to accelerate problem-solving also Time Line Therapy(R) BUT the first thing is one must become aware of the problem and be empowered to create new results to produce new behaviour. Perception is projection – where am I doing those behaviours? What do I need to learn from this? These are some great questions to ask yourself.
This is the key to true empowerment.
Be well and till next time.
Maria Vamvouklis
Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming – Time Line Therapy® and Hypnosis
