The Actual Issue

I am reading a great book by Ronald and Mary Hulnick, “Loyalty to Your Soul” and have to share something I read:

“How we relate to an issue is the issue.”

This is such a powerful idea.

“Issues” are happening all the time. How we decide to interact with them makes all the difference.

When we are at choice, we can make two critical decisions: 1) whether things are (indeed) “issues” or if they are challenges (or even opportunities) and 2) and how any particular event occurs to us.

In regards to #1, I am not advocating ignoring Reality and pretending things are different than they truly are, but to avail ourselves of the wide-range of potential responses to anything that we deem as non-ideal.

#2 allows us to decide what something means to us and, equally important, what we’re going to do about something.

*  *  *

Non-resourceful processing of life events is a missed opportunity (but only all the time).

Both in the moment, because instead of learning and growing from challenges we resist them and again in a meta-sense in that we see the world in terms of things that we like and things we don’t like.

Things just are.

How we let things occur to us is our choice. And it makes all the difference.

The issue is never really the issue, it’s how we relate to the issue that matters.

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Matthew,
    Thank you for mentioning Loyalty To Your Soul in your message. Steve Hardison sent this blog to me.
    Good luck with your coaching.
    Ron Hulnick

  2. Ron,

    Thanks so much for stopping by; I appreciate your comment, and am grateful for the book you and Mary created for the world. It’s the sort of book that I will return to and re-read.

    Best of luck with you work.

    Be Well.

    – Matthew

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