Under the Surface
Iceberg Gathering by Bill Russell
We’ve all seen the illustration online depicting success as an iceberg where the peak is clearly visible but we’re also given a view of the tremendous amount of work that goes unseen under the surface. Popular because it’s true, as musicians we immediately recognize the relationship of that drawing to practice and performance.
But there is an even bigger part of our lives as performers that the iceberg can represent, and that includes our approach to daily life outside of making music. Routines of all types, planning ahead, reflecting on what’s behind us…tending.
Management and care outside of goals. Instead of considering the next tip of the iceberg we’d like to reach, taking care that the whole unit stays intact during storms, warm spells, and ideal conditions alike.
Out of the many possible environmental scenarios, ideal conditions happen the least. Weeks where our schedule is consistent, our workload is balanced, we eat well and get enough sleep can be evasive for students and professionals. It’s not a surprise though - as musicians we become accustomed to this type of schedule. The real question is why we don’t manage it better.
It may be that we are directing our attention toward the wrong iceberg tip or mountain top. Goals that start out well-intentioned can become all consuming. It’s easy to get hyper focused on the outcome of something and the immediate path to that result (passing an important performance jury by cramming practice time for two weeks prior, for example). The actions we take are important, but they are more meaningful when we cultivate a stable environment and pace.
The iceberg imagery can easily be applied to our Creative Resilience. At the tip of the iceberg are the obvious actions - physical health, a good practice habit with repertoire and skill maintenance appropriate to our level, crafting a strong mental approach to our performance situations.
A little further down the iceberg, maybe right around the water line, are actions and habits that we might also find slightly obvious but easily neglect - creating a good daily schedule, eating well, and exercising. Maybe starting on big projects like papers and grants early and writing tough emails falls into this category. This part of the iceberg is reserved for items that are important for the maintenance of our lives, but peripheral enough each day to be ignored often.
Under the water is where we get to the actions that matter most, although at first glance they might seem irrelevant or trivial . On any given day they won’t make a big splash, but left alone they would develop into large fissures and the loss of important foundational pieces.
Routines fall into this category, but not the obvious routines of practice. The routines at this depth genuinely create the foundations of our resilience and have more to do with understanding our circumstances and needs.
These are the routines of how we approach our mornings, plan intentional work and rest periods each week, prepare for a new semester, or make sure that we do season-specific activities that bring us ease or joy. It might be the extra twenty minutes you leave yourself each morning for coffee regardless of when your first activity is, or making sure you attend outdoor concerts by your favorite band each summer. It might mean nourishing your interest in cooking by regularly trying new recipes or making sure you connect with a long distance friend frequently.
If you’re a student, going deeper in your routines might mean balancing social time with alone time so you can recharge or limiting the time you spend on social media so you can create a routine around resting at the end of each day.
Routines have as much or more to do with creating a daily life that feels good and inspires our best work as they do with getting work done. These types of routines are easy to overlook or ignore, but create the foundation of how we move through our world over time.
Inseparable from these interior routines is self awareness - another deep water skill. In our media driven era we often relate self awareness (and routines) to achievement. The sentiment being that the more self aware and enlightened we become the more successful, well-known, and important we’ll be.
For our purposes we’re remaining below the surface. Whatever outward appearance it creates, true self awareness allows us to feel at ease and at home in our own skin. It guides us to develop the functional routines we’ve already touched on and to adjust our course based on what feels right to us.
Perhaps the actual goal of self awareness is developing a strong sense of intuition. Rather than aiming blindly for “success” we can, over time, search out what would feel like true success to us - the work/life balance we desire, the amount of money that we feel would create stability, and what will help us feel personally fulfilled. These things will likely change, but growing our intuitive strength means we can recognize those changes as they happen.
Self awareness can be built in a multitude of ways, and it may take time to figure out what works for you. Maybe you like to write down your thoughts, or take long runs or walks to puzzle out aspects of your life. You might be a mindfulness practitioner, or someone who likes making spreadsheets and lists.
Any activity that allows you to gain perspective from your actions and days and see yourself at a distance can cultivate self awareness. Our brain needs space to process and connect the dots, although sometimes it can be important to dial our focus inward very intentionally. Just like your routines and perspective, how you cultivate your self-awareness will likely change with you over time.
Becoming self aware sits firmly in the deep center of our iceberg, inseparable from our interior routines and another important structural element - addressing current and future needs. This requires predicting the future a bit, but fortunately we can do that by observing the past.
Each stage of life comes with rhythms. If we are a student or a teacher, the rhythm of the academic calendar drives many of our patterns from year to year. If you are a freelancer or administrator a different type of season will impact the cadence of your life. Having a partner or children will add another dimension to this. Like a complicated machine, it’s possible to have multiple wheels (calendars, seasons) that turn together at different speeds.
Paying attention to these rhythms means we don’t have to be manipulated by them. Although there will be seasons of change where the best we can do might be to observe, we can always take action based on previous experiences and deductive reasoning skills. This might look like understanding that big, important performances need a wide timeline of preparation or learning that we need to employ detailed systems and reminders for important deadlines. Conversely, you might observe that you over prepare for certain performances and run out of energy before the main event, leading you to adjust the beginning of your preparations for a time closer to the date of the performance.
Shifting our perspective to include more of the depth of the iceberg will change our view of what is at the peak. What if we removed the generic goal of success or other standard- but-substance-less goals like “win a job,” “become well-known,” or any of the other goals we are handed as students and musicians by others.
If the tip of the iceberg was actually a culmination of a more defined idea of fulfillment or purpose that changes as we do - anything from completing a degree as a better musician with a clearer sense of direction to prioritizing our sense of purpose in work or community - wouldn’t we both be happier and more “successful”?
We can keep moving through our lives, often with a fair amount of achievement, without strengthening what lies under the surface, but if we’re willing to dial in and tend the things that no one else has a view of, let alone a reason to notice, there is a richness to be discovered in each of our lives no matter where we are along the way.