Things were crazy for Richard Stirton after he won The Voice on Sunday night. Everyone wanted a piece of him at the show's after party, including me.
I had a chat with him in between the madness and was most interested in one specific thing: the self knowledge he gained by being on the show.
He was silent for a while when I asked, he thought about it for a bit and then said: "I think I need to believe in myself more, I found that out. I really do need to believe in myself because I don’t doubt myself but I sometimes sell myself short."
He went on to explain how he discovered this: "The other day, when my single was number one on iTunes, I didn’t give myself credit and one of my mates slapped me in the face - metaphorically - he was just like, 'Broer, you need to realise that actually you’re sounding good, give yourself credit. Take a step back and acknowledge,' - because I’m quite hard on myself."
Interesting I thought because it suggests that he had a battle within himself during the competition. This was confirmed a few minutes later when I asked him about the most difficult thing about doing the show.
He replied: "Having friends leave. It’s the biggest thing because you get so close. Also, maintaining tactful behaviour, like I said on the show, being impeccable with your word. The biggest thing for me is just maintaining the way I treat people - that’s been my goal since the first day, to treat everyone as best as I can because there’s no point getting a big head or being arrogant or speaking down to people."
I felt for him when he said this because it made me think that he was caught in a strinickity situation. He was obviously so determined not to get big headed or arrogant that he went the other way and didn't give himself enough credit for his success.
I could relate bigtime because it comes down to one of the most difficult things to achieve in life: balance. How do you achieve it and once you do, how do you maintain it??
Trippy stuff!