Thank you for making 2016 awesome!
The secret to any great blog is not sharing internal thoughts – that’s just a public journal. The goal is to share ideas and perspectives which move, inform and transform readers. And I’m so grateful for the stories and comments which show me the latter happened in 2016.
Honestly, though, it was hard during certain weeks to get a post out on Tuesday. But I made you a promise and I knew many of you were difficult spots and needed a boost. Whenever I felt like quitting or wondered if these posts mattered, I got emails like these (share a couple of the encouraging emails throughout the year).
Re-reading these notes reminds me of this important truth – if you feel moved in your heart to reach out to someone, do it. Right at that moment! We are each in the middle of a great battle, which few people see. A call, a text, an email, a comment, a hug can literally be the difference between someone quitting and someone persevering.
It has been an incredible year on the blog! Here’s a few significant numbers.
-We doubled the number of people who are subscribed via email. (If you haven’t subscribed, you can do at the bottom of this post.)
-We reached more people in 2016 than 2015. 33% more people visit the site, 50% more traffic than 2015
-We released two new resources – Forgiveness: From Myth to Reality and Make Change: How to End One Year Well and Begin the Next. Two quick stories on these resources. I know a professional who works with sex crimes victims who has been sharing the forgiveness ebook, as the ebook takes seriously the source of betrayal and it cautions reconciliation in certain situations. Never thought I would be helping victims find freedom, but that’s amazing! And this week, a reader sent me a note saying he was leading a training for 12 CEO’s and he was printing a copy of my Make Change workbook for each of them to engage. Wow!
-5 of the most popular posts were new posts. The longer this site is around (entering its 3rd year), the harder it will be for new posts to compete with popular older content. So I’m grateful these 5 new posts resonated with you and you shared them with friends and family!
Thank you again for reading, subscribing and sharing! I truly am honored to be a voice of encouragement and hope in your life. It’s a blessing!
2016 Year in Review: Top 10 Posts
I wanted to share 16 quotes for 2016 which I’ve gleaned from these 10 uber-popular posts. And these aren’t my favorite posts – although I’m big fans of some – these are the ones which received the most visitors in 2016.
10. Vulnerability Lessons with Rachel Patton – September 2015
“What if what we’re working on and longing for is on the other side of vulnerability? Like (Rachel) Platten’s Fight Song, what if success looks like diving deeply into our own story, working harder at being honest and being courageous vulnerable?”
9. Conquering Isolation – February 2016
“Isolation magnifies our insecurity. Isolation also makes it harder to discern truth. When we’re left with simply the voices inside our head, we give greater weight to destructive voices and we often go to darker places…
“Collaboration gave us what isolation could not. When we came together and heard those two powerful words (“me too”), everything changed…
“Fear grows louder and stronger when we’re alone. But when we drag our fears into community, other people call out the lies and the light shines into the darkness.”
8. 3 Voices We Need to Evict – February 2015
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future…The voices we listen to shape our future. They impact who we’ll become and where we’ll go.”
“Too many of us are frivolous when it comes to the kinds of voices we empower. We’re passive when it comes to the voices – we let any voice into our life.”
7. Is regret a good thing or a bad thing? – January 2015
“Don’t be afraid of making mistakes; be afraid of missing a chance to do what you were created to do.”
6. Lessons from Weakness with Elizabeth Maxon – March 2016
“Fear is dispelled quicker when it is acknowledged in the presence of others who care about us and who can remind us of God’s truth over the enemy’s lies.”
5. Success, Failure, and Love with Will Smith – December 2015
“Don’t let success go to your head and failure go to your heart.”
“You can’t win enough, you can’t have enough money, you can’t succeed enough. There is not enough. The only thing that will ever satiate that existential thirst is love.”
4. My Struggle with Anxiety – October 2016
“We’re all struggling. Yet we’re all struggling to make it appear like we’re not struggling.”
“Here’s what I do know – It’s okay not to be okay. I also know you’re not alone. There are other people who would say ‘me too’ if you shared your story. Having to have all the answers and having to be perfect are terrible expectations and they destroy any chance we have of connecting with one another.”
3. Looking for Affirmation/Validation via Social Media – March 2015
“However, the dark side of social media is that likes, comments, shares, retweets, favorites, followers, friends, visitors, page views, and subscribers become a way to measure our value, rather than our profile’s performance. These ‘vanity metrics’ end up deciding the value of not only our work, but of who we are, if we aren’t careful.”
2. Five Friends Who Could Change Your Life – March 2016
“Our lives are shaped by the people whose voices mean the most.”
1. Fear of Ridicule with Lecrae – January 2016
“At its worst, fear keeps us from the lives we were created to live and the purposes we were intended to fulfill.”
“Choose which voices matter to you and ignore everyone else.”
Thanks again for reading. If you haven’t grabbed a copy of my workbook to help you end 2016 well and begin 2017 with a bang, you can grab it here!
I’d love to hear from you too. What was your favorite article on this site during 2016? What would you like to read more about in 2017?
