Tag: Impostor Syndrome

Lewis Capaldi showed that mental health issues can and do affect anyone

Last Saturday, I witnessed one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen. I sat down to watch Lewis Capaldi deliver yet another amazing Pyramid Stage performance at Glastonbury. He knocked it out of the park during his previous appearance at the festival and I fully expected him to do that again. Sadly, that wasn’t …

How just one band greatly improves my life and my mental health. A thank-you to The Lottery Winners.

Some regular readers will no doubt think ‘oh, here he goes again, banging on about the Lottery Winners again’ but hear me out on this one. This is about so much more than a favourite band and a few favourite songs. So much more… For those of you who may not be aware, The Lottery …

An open letter to any kids who play a music instrument. Reach for the sky and don’t doubt yourself.  

I try not to live a life filled with regrets. It’s wasted time. The past is done and can’t be changed – it’s much better to live in the present and look to the future. However, if I do have one huge regret, it’s not seriously pursuing music when I was younger. I started playing …

What would happen if you looked at your story and wrote it from another person’s point of view?

I recently watched a snippet of a TED talk which really hit home. The talk is titled How Changing Your Story Can Change Your Life, by Lori Gottlieb. The general theme is that what we tell ourselves shapes how we live our lives – Gottlieb summarises this by saying “The way we narrate our lives …

Don’t ever say you’re not good enough

I’ve made a last-minute change to the theme of this week’s blog. Last night, we had a long overdue catch-up with some good friends. At one point, they were asking their son to perform a couple of magic tricks he has been working on lately, though he was reluctant to do so, saying he didn’t …

I’ve lost a bit of my enthusiasm for the blog over recent weeks…

Since my very first YYCDI blog post, I’ve strived to make each and every post searingly honest. Today’s is no exception… For a few weeks now, I just haven’t been feeling the enthusiasm and passion I usually have for the blog. I’m sure this will be a temporary state-of-mind but, unfortunately, it’s where I’m at …

Anxiety, live gigs, and why I continue to plug in and play…

There were signs of hope and encouragement for many of us in the UK this week. Hope that our children can settle into a normal school life again. Hope that we can meet up with friends and family soon. Hope that shops, pubs and restaurants will soon open again. Hope that we can give our …

The year ahead for YYCDI

As I wrote last week, I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions as such, primarily as, without careful thinking, planning and focus, they’re largely doomed to fail. However, the beginning of each calendar year is certainly a suitable time to gather my thoughts, review the previous year, look ahead, determine what I truly want …

Don’t beat yourself up (part 2 of 2)

Spoiler alert – I’m going to contradict the title within this post and be very self-critical… Other than what was largely a borrowed post on Christmas Eve, my last wholly original YYCDI blog post was published on the 26th November. In that, which acted as a precursor to this post, I wrote about how I …

Easy to spot problems when we’re always thinking of problems – the constant battle with our core mindset

This post is based on the following image: I found this again whilst going through some saved images on my phone this week and it really struck a chord. Thinking of my own experiences, I know that my state-of-mind is in a worse place if I constantly think of the negatives in any situation. For …