Are they issues, challenges or opportunities.?  You can be relating a story to your friends, family or colleagues.  The same details could be presented by you as challenges you face, issues that are bugging you or opportunities for improvement.

The spin comes out in the way you tell the story.  The listeners filters kick in and they percieve your story as an issue , or opportunity or a challenge.  (Or perhaps they are just bored.)

Perspective Matters

The same set of facts can be used to send very different messages, with assocoated different results.  Additionally the interpretation will very, although inflenced by the presentation the recievers perspective has great impact on the interpretation.

Positive Spin/Negative Spin/ No Spin

As a general rule telling the story with an optomistic perspective gets better results.  A positive spin is more likely to not only position your audience  for a positive reaction, but truth be told, it makes you feel better as well.

Percieving the story as an issue or challenge can be daunting.  How we view a situation drives our subsequent behaviors.  Positive feelings are morelikely to be associated with positive reactions.

For Example

Here are three story summaries.  The event being described is the same in each case:

Issue

• I was late for work and the boss yelled at me, boy is he insensitive

Challenge

• Late for work today and the boss called me out on it, I need to find a way to avoid this

Opportunity

• The boss set me straight about being late for work and I am going to prove this was just a one off.

So think about how you want to tell the story, the way you tell it can impact the outcomes very differently, including how others view you and how you view yourself.