Yearly cycles have an interesting rhythm, don’t they? When we contemplate nature, we know that weather patterns and seasons determine routines and behaviors found in the plant and animal kingdom. For society, it is very much the same. For us musicians, we have additional seasons: academic seasons, audition seasons, concert seasons, interview seasons, everything has its very own “season.”
Throughout these various seasons, we inevitably get so busy with everything that we often wonder how entire seasons like spring or summer passed us by. Only then do we consider the questions: Have we continued to follow through with our plans we set for this year? Have we finished the projects we intended to have completed by a certain deadline? Have we moved ahead quickly enough with our long-term goals? Did we even scratch the surface? If the answers to these questions have too many noes, then we need to reassess and figure out better strategies to incorporate these plans so they can finally materialize.
There are so many strategies we can incorporate for greater productivity, and many of you have good ideas about how to accomplish this. There can be challenging instances, however, when barriers to achievement will impede the trajectory toward completion: motivation paralysis, feeling burned out, and even musicians’ pride. Let’s take a closer look at the last barrier, musicians’ pride. This is a term that was briefly mentioned in our first blog titled, “Your Time and Goals.”
What exactly is musicians’ pride? It is the pressure musicians place upon themselves to “appear” to know all the answers in our field, even though this is not the case. It is also the avoidance of asking questions or asking for help in order to prevent any appearance of weakness. Unfortunately, this can lead to making mistakes, doing things the hard way, and to consuming a ton of extra time by playing the role of “knowing it all.” Even when off the stage, musicians can exhibit a competitive nature and never want to be seen as anything other than having everything together and figured out. In reality, there is always so much to know in our industry that this pressure can eventually become exhausting and unsustainable.
The best way to overcome musicians’ pride is to be honest with yourself about how much energy you expend maintaining the image of “knowing it all.” Put aside that daunting habit and get the help you need to attain your goals. Refuse to go about things blindly. Become comfortable with asking the questions that nag you and seek out any assistance you need. Even when your schedule seems full of other obligations, you owe yourself the time needed to figure out how to do things more efficiently and progress toward your goals. Consider these wise words from the author, Stephen R. Covey: “The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”
Investing in yourself by seeking professional consulting services allows you to gain the knowledge you need to move forward. The Musical Tie was created just for you, and we are here to help guide you throughout your career. And for those music organizations wanting to implement diversity in their company’s structure and outreach, but don’t know where to begin or how to continue developing positive change, we can help you make those improvements. You have the support you need right here and we look forward to serving you.
If you could go back and redo anything along your musical journey, what do you wish you would have asked upfront, rather than learning about it so much later?
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Comments