June means ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

But how ready are you to turn and face the strange...?

How’s your week been? Thanks to everyone for the songs that soothe your soul. 80s music came up for most of you, inc. this banger from Brummie singer Stevie Winwood.

And spookily enough the musical theme zoomed straight into my work at GMB - with 2 legends of pop and rock visiting the studios.

On Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday, Martin Fry from ABC was in promoting his new tour in the Autumn with the Lexicon Sinfonia Orchestra, conducted by Anne Dudley.

And then Skin from Skunk Anansie was in the next day, sharing details of their new album, The Painful Truth.

Menopause has been water off a duck’s back for her apparently 😳 And off camera she is equally as zen, so no wonder!

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How You Doin’?

I think there’s something about the month of June that demands honesty.

You’ve kind of reached the halfway mark of the year, and you turn to yourself in the mirror, asking ‘How are those good intentions going then?’

Losing weight, eating more healthily, going to the gym more, searching for a new job, maybe even turning your back on a dying industry you’ve been working in for waaay too long?

So where are you with Project You for 2025?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately – it’s been deep and uncomfortable.

The kind of thinking that comes when life starts nudging you toward changes you've been avoiding.

Some forced, some enforced. All necessary.

The Art of ‘Strategic’ Sunshine

Next week Oz and I are jetting off for a week in the sunshine, and I am cock-a-hoop.

Not just for (another) break, but for what happens when I get quiet enough (preferably on a sunbed with a cocktail in my hand) to actually hear my own thoughts - without the noise of my work life drowning them out.

This is my annual ‘clarity retreat’ disguised as a beach holiday. My journal's packed, my strategic brain is switched on, and I'm ready to figure some shizzle out.

Vitamin D + Deep Thinking = Clarity & Energy. For me anyway. Each to their own.

The Great Garden Project (Finally!)

Speaking of things that matter – after a DECADE of making a right mess of our garden (and I mean properly struggling, like looking out the window and eye-rolling every summer) the completion of what Austen has lovingly called ‘The Super-Shed’ - our chillzone-cum-brewery - is in its final stages. And we’re absolutely buzzing.

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But I need your brilliant minds on this. What do you call a garden sanctuary that's part relaxation zone, part place where Oz perfects his brewing skills? We need a more fitting name. Answers on a postcard, please!

And then there’s the eternal rug question: indoor or outdoor? Can you actually bung those outdoor ones in the wash, or do they just stay manky forever? If you can then HOW do you wash em?

The Power of Strategic Stillness

So while everyone else is posting about their summer schedules, I'm choosing strategic stillness.

This week away isn't about switching off – it's about switching on to what really matters.

What would your life look like if you stopped settling? What dreams have you been shoving on the back burner because they feel too big, too risky, too different from what everyone expects of you? What would you do if you backed yourself completely?

These are my June questions, the ones I'll be pondering between sunbathing sessions and evening strategic chats with Oz.

Because clarity doesn't come from being busier or having more options.

It comes from getting quiet enough to hear what your soul has been trying to tell you all along.

Welcome, June

So cheers to June and the uncomfortable conversations with ourselves, to garden projects that have taken far too long to get sorted, and to having the courage to make changes even when (especially when) they feel scary.

Whatever you're avoiding looking at, whatever change has been knocking at your door, whatever dream you've been calling "unrealistic" – maybe this is the month to get curious instead of resistant?

The light's not going anywhere for a while. Use it.

What's June whispering to you? Hit reply and tell me – sometimes we need to say the scary thoughts out loud before we can act on them.

All my love and summer strategising!

Marv

x


P.S. Seriously though – what would you name a ‘super-shed’?

And if you already have one, what do you call yours?!