Remember when you couldn’t escape J. Lo? Lord knows I do.
Whether it was an ad for one of her six perfumes, an award show performance, a media blitz, a movie premier or a dual language album, that woman was everywhere. She was Diddy’s date, Ben Affleck’s almost and then Marc Anthony’s forever. And if the media wasn’t talking about her love life, it was focused on her décolletage and derrière. And while at first it was a wonderful thing to see Jenny from the Block getting a little shine, soon the glare of it all made me want to put her on the 6 express train right back to Castle Hill.
But quietly, she faded away. To be honest, I can quite recall what did it- marriage or motherhood, but Jennifer Lopez was suddenly settled into and comfortable with her fame. After years of trying to push her way there, the triple threat accepted being a star instead of a phenomenon and to be honest it suits her well.
She’s still far from low-key: reminding us with a Gucci spread and new Kohls’ line, of the mogul she hopes to be. But somehow it seems even with her reputation for being high-maintenance the dancer-singer-actress-mogul has found a way to come (relatively) close to low key.
While Jennifer Lopez’s shift from media domination to momentary surfacing may seem to be a mere celeb case study, it has lessons all Mesdames can share. While we often think that making concurrent achievements can keep us relevant, as women we often make more exhausting and taxing short term investments than meaningful, long-term ones that will last.
When choosing what to focus on, it is important to put time into the projects that will yield the most, not just the ones that will create the most attention. Today’s culture is faster paced than ever, with milestones turning into dots as we whiz by. Though it can be tempting to make your mark getting noticed, it’s not worth sacrificing building what you will have to stand on in the end.
This week, let’s make a better effort to prioritize our efforts in light of our goals. If we are going to tap into our inner divas, it will be to turn down the things that won’t help our long term growth. We finally find the time to do the things we’ve put up on the shelves of our minds and said, “One day.” We’ll get working on those things that have always seemed too lofty of goals for the right now and finally acknowledge our present.
Great opportunities will come and we should have the discernment to know what those are. But overwhelmingly, the things that will open the doors to our future are the plans we will make ourselves. So let’s be our own personal assistants, marking off the items that are fillers not fulfillers. Instead of making more appearances, make better choices.
And if you need a little theme music to get started today, go ahead and blast some, “Let’s Get Loud.” I promise, I won’t judge.
