If you leave west London via the M3, drive past the medieval town of Winchester, take a left at Peppa Pig World and pootle on for 37 miles, you arrive at the small Dorset town of Shitterton.
Shitterton has an unusual claim to fame.
A while back, the residents found themselves at the centre of a bizarre crime spree:
All the local “Shitterton” signs were getting stolen.
I’m not sure if the signs ended up on Ebay
or whether the thieves kept hold of them for shittertons and giggles. But what I do know is that as more signs got pinched, the locals decided enough was enough. So they took matters into their own hands and carved “Shitterton” into a 1.5 tonne block of stone, then installed the stone with a crane just outside the town.
In the words of Ian Ventham, the
chairman of the local parish council:
"We’d get a nice new shiny sign from the council and five minutes later, it was gone.
So we thought, 'Let's put in a tonne and a half of stone and see them try and take
that away in the back of a Ford Fiesta’”
The thing is, the Shitterton locals could’ve kept playing the sign replacement game for years.
But rather than replace every missing sign, they put an end to that nonsense for
good by installing their own great hulking slab of stone.
In many ways, the sign replacement game is no different to downloading the latest meditation app when the previous five haven't worked or deciding to change careers because work is stressful, then realising your stress has followed you to your next job.
They're all tiring and temporary solutions.
A better strategy?
Finding an inner steadiness that doesn't need
replacing.
I won't pretend I've got this all figured out myself.
But I do know that when I stopped playing the replacement game and connected with a more solid sense of who I am, I found more peace than I'd had in
years.
I can help you do the same.
If you’re ready to step off the merry-go-round and tap into something solid, here’s where to go:
https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com
To fulfilment,
Tom