2016 was a massive year of growth for me. Many big wins and many big challenges.
On the wins side…
I helped more people this past year than I had cumulatively helped in my previous six years of coaching combined, I cultivated a deep sense of community for the first time in my adult life, I lived with good friends in several gorgeous cities across North America, and I loved deeper than I ever thought I could love.
On the challenges side…
I faced deep grieving (one of my best friends was killed in a car crash), I went through a beautiful and challenging breakup, and I was fairly depressed for at least two months.
All in all, the year was a gong show.
Through the trials and tribulations of the year, I wrote some pretty great articles that people seemed to really love.
Here are the top ten most valuable, popular, and loved articles of 2016, in no particular order, as voted by you.
1. Kindling vs. Coal: How To Know If Your Relationship Will Last
Is the infamous ‘seven year itch’ inevitable in a relationship?
Is love at first sight a real thing, or should you run the other way?
What warning signs should you be looking for within the first month of a relationship to know whether or not it will stand the test of time?
In this article, I outline a simple and effective model for intimate relationships that allows you to know whether your relationship is an appreciating or depreciating asset… aka will it get better or worse over time?
There are two ways that love can develop, and this article addresses those two distinct paths.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
2. Slow Sex: How To Magnify Your Sexual Pleasure
What started out as a deep-dive into foreplay tips for men and women ended up taking on a life of it’s own. By far the longest (and steamiest) article on this list.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
3. All Of Your Suffering Was Worth It
One of my favourite metaphors for life of all time…
This article lays out the ‘blocks & earthquakes’ model of life… and it explains exactly why and how life becomes easier with age.
Remember, life is happening for you… not to you.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
4. 21 Of The Best Self Care Practices Ever
How you treat yourself is how you feel about yourself… sooo, how have you been treating yourself lately?
I spent a lot of time in 2016 researching stress, anxiety, fulfillment, and self-love/self-care. This article outlines a collection of some of the highest leverage self-care tips that I discovered in the first half of the year to honour my body, mind, and spirit.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
5. 4 Honest As Fuck Questions You Need To Ask Yourself Often
Sometimes I write an article entirely for myself (i.e. my motives are 100% selfish… almost like putting out a public diary entry) and my readers fall in love with it. This article is a prime example of this trend in action.
This article details a short and poignant journalling exercise that I do at least once per month, and it took off. It garnered tens of thousands of new readers within the first day of it’s release, and it kept spreading from there.
Hopefully you get something from this piece, as many others did.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
6. This Woman Changed My Life Forever
From 2014 – 2016 I engaged in one of the most deeply healing love relationships of my entire life.
We were catalysts for each other. Our presence in each other’s lives uprooted some deeply held limiting beliefs, and the growth potential was seemingly endless. After nearly two years of being romantically involved, we acknowledged that there were things that we simply couldn’t provide for each other… but that didn’t mean that our deep-rooted love for each other as people had changed.
I wrote this article to show people that you can part ways with a former lover not just ‘amicably’ but passionately… lovingly… setting each other free from a place of love and care.
I love this woman. I’ll never not love her as long as I live, but that doesn’t mean that we are meant to be intimate partners long-term.
Remember, relationships don’t “fail”… they complete.
This piece is what I wrote once ours had completed.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
7. How I Healed My Relationship With Men
This year I joined a men’s group. Every week for the past seven months, roughly twenty men and I have met in an office building and we catch each other up on our lives. We keep each other accountable, and ensure that we’re all staying in integrity with our word.
This article details the process that I went through in learning to trust and open up to men more deeply than I ever had before, and the healing that came as a result of this process.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
8. The Best Sex Toy For Men, Ever
My finger was shaking over the publish button before I sent this out to the world.
‘Is this too weird for people?
Do people even know what a male masturbator is?
Is it weird that I’m writing a dedicated product review on a sex toy for men?’
Ultimately, the time and effort that went into writing this article was well worth it. I’ve had dozens of men reach out since I posted this piece and tell me how much they love their new sex toy.
So if you’ve ever toyed with the idea of taking your sexual pleasure to new heights, then I’d recommend you check out this piece (or the female equivalent).
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
9. How To Overcome Depression Naturally
After my relationship ending, close friend passing away, and going through a few other major transitions simultaneously, my mental health took a big hit. I felt chronically anxious and/or depressed for two consecutive months and took some time off from coaching and writing.
Some friends and family members were concerned about me and they wanted me to go on medication. While I recognize that medication is absolutely necessary for some people to get through their depressive episodes, for me personally, it was a very last resort.
I wanted to find out all of the scientifically-backed things that I could do in order to move through my depressive episode faster, without the use of drugs.
I went through more books, articles, and specialists than I could possibly enumerate in this article… but suffice it to say that I found many tips, tricks, and hacks to get a leg up on my mental health and to help me move through my funk a lot faster than I would have otherwise. For more information on what I discovered throughout this phase, read this article and the piece mentioned in the following section on managing stress.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
10. How To Manage Stress (Or How I Weathered My Shit Storm Of A Year)
As alluded to in points #3 and 9, this year was a challenging one for me. This article outlines some of the broader/more holistic things that I did in order to keep my mind and body thriving during such a demanding growth phase.
I go into some fairly run of the mill tips (eat well, sleep well, exercise, volunteering, reach out to others for support, etc.), but each with their own new and unique twists.
Click here to read this article now, or bookmark it for later.
What’s Next?
I have been building up this blog for coming up on four years now, and I’ve barely taken a break throughout the entirety of the climb. As alluded to in my recent article 7 Things I Am Actively Working On In My Life Right Now, I am currently working on shifting my relationship to the work that I put out.
Over the coming year, instead of releasing 10-20 articles per month of varying quality, I am going to be aiming to release 1-3 articles per month that are each of significantly higher quality and with a lot more research and depth. Put simply, I’m shifting to a mindset of ‘quality over quantity.’
(Side note: if you’re going to miss the frequency of my posts, remember that I have over 300+ free articles on my site… you can read some of the best of the best over here).
I am also feeling an increasingly loud pull towards doing more work with video… but I’ll release more information on this soon.
As always, if you feel like reaching out to me and making specific requests for new content, you can reach me by hopping on my email list and hitting ‘Reply’ to any email that I send you.
I sincerely hope that 2016 was a big year for you. Whether that means big as in challenging or big as in filled with love… I hope that the year brought you many gifts.
Thank you for coming along on this ride with me. I think the world of you.
Dedicated to your success,
Jordan
Ps. If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to check out:
– Jordan’s Top 10 Sex & Relationship Posts of 2015
Pps. I also launched my video series, The Intentional Life, this calendar year. Here are my two favourite episodes from the ones that I’ve released thus far:
– The Intentional Life Episode 1: Discover Your Core Gifts With Ken Page
– The Intentional Life Episode 5: How To Boost Your Testosterone Naturally With Ben Greenfield
