And now, it's time for the story I wasn't sure whether to tell, and which I am still more than mildly unsure about telling, because it is egomaniacal. (1/?)

But you voted unanimously in a poll to hear it – so just don't blame me when my head gets even bigger. And, as I promised, it does involve me looking daft if you read till the end.

So, I love to go for walks, and I also love to sing. So when I am out walking, I'm always listening to music, and singing along unashamedly. I'm usually in the countryside, so only sheep can hear me; if there's another person visible, I'll stop singing out of embarrassment.

But of course, you don't always realise who's around, especially when you spend as much time in your own little world as I do.
So I'm walking along, and yes I'm singing along to Dina Carroll, and I don't notice the middle aged couple.

But as I come towards the railway bridge, I see them. I see them because they've stopped, and they’re standing on the steps up the bank, and they're looking at me, and they're CLAPPING.
They're clapping quite enthusiastically, and I pull my headphones out in surprise.

"Your singing!" the woman says by way of explanation.
Surprise turns to embarrassment. “Oh no! I didn’t realise there was anyone there!” I start.
But she’s not having it. “You carry on,” she says; “you’ve got a lovely voice.”
“Thank you.” I say. And I am really quite amazed.

I wanted to tell this story, in the end, because it shows the enormous impact a compliment can have. Some people think I can sing, and some people think I can’t; so every time someone tells me that I can, it matters.

And this goes for anything good we hear about ourselves. It *always* matters. Sometimes it matters *a lot*.

Many of us have so much constant negativity in our own heads, and then there’s the negativity we get from other people too. A compliment or a kind word can completely change how you see yourself.

I used to think I looked awful in photos, until someone said they liked seeing photos of me because I was always smiling. Since then, I’ve stopped noticing the teeth, and noticing the smile that others see instead.

There’s never a downside to paying a compliment, yet we’re often reluctant to do so somehow even with those we know and love. It’s as if it costs us something, when it costs us nothing.

With strangers, often we’re embarrassed or shy - yet a compliment from a stranger can for that reason be particularly powerful, because they made the effort to overcome that embarrassment and approach someone they don’t know with the sole aim of increasing their confidence.

I was happy for the rest of the day – not only to be thought good at something, but because of the kindness those two people had shown in taking time out of their day to tell me something good about myself.

A while after I’d walked off, I realised that I’d forgotten that I’d taken off my winter scarf, because it was so sunny, and tied it around my head like a turban to protect the top of my head from the sun, and so had looked like a complete loon for the entire conversation.