There comes a point where you realise that nobody else is going to live your life for you.

They can have opinions about it.

They can give you advice.

They can tell you what they think you should do, where you should go, what you should want and what a “good” life is supposed to look like.

But at the end of all of that, you’re still the one standing there.

And this little life is yours.

That’s really where “This Little Life Is Mine” came from.

I think when we’re younger, it’s easy to imagine life as this enormous thing waiting ahead of us. There will be plenty of time. Plenty of opportunities. Plenty of chances to become the person we’re eventually going to be.

Then life starts happening.

Plans change.

People come and go.

You make choices that work out brilliantly and others that make you wonder what on earth you were thinking.

You take detours you never expected to take.

And somewhere along the way you realise that this isn’t the rehearsal.

This is it.

That sounds slightly terrifying when you put it like that, but I actually find something quite comforting in it.

Because if this life is mine, then I get a say in what I do with it.

I don’t have to measure it against somebody else’s.

I don’t have to have reached the same milestones at the same time.

I don’t have to explain every change of direction.

And I certainly don’t have to spend the whole thing worrying about whether everybody else approves.

There is something wonderfully freeing about finally accepting that.

The title “This Little Life Is Mine” is deliberately modest.

Not this enormous important life.

Not this extraordinary life.

Just this little one.

The ordinary days. The strange decisions. The people you love. The places you end up. The mistakes, the memories, the ridiculous moments, the heartbreaks and the things that somehow work out despite having absolutely no right to.

All of it counts.

And all of it belongs to you.

Coming straight after “Be You” on Still Becoming, I think this song takes that idea one step further.

“Be You” says: you’re allowed to be yourself.

“This Little Life Is Mine” says: and now go live like you believe it.

That doesn’t mean having everything figured out.

If anything, this whole album exists because I very clearly don’t believe anybody ever completely figures it out.

We keep learning.

We keep changing.

We keep rewriting plans we once thought were permanent.

But there’s power in recognising that even while everything around you changes, you still have some ownership over the direction you take.

Sometimes you have to stop living according to the invisible checklist in your head.

Stop worrying about the life you thought you would have.

Stop comparing your behind-the-scenes with somebody else’s highlight reel.

And look around at the slightly messy, imperfect, funny, frustrating, beautiful thing that actually happened instead.

Because maybe it isn’t exactly the life you planned.

Maybe it took a few strange roads to get here.

Maybe there are still plenty more ahead.

But it’s yours.

And there’s something pretty special about that.

This little life is mine.

I think I'm finally learning to appreciate it.

xx IJ