2025 After Action Review

Most of us are rolling fast toward 2026.
But 2025 isn’t in the rear-view mirror yet.

The calendar will roll over.
That doesn’t mean the habits, decisions, or consequences did.

If you didn’t stop and look at 2025, you’re already carrying it into 2026 — whether you want to or not.

🚫 The unlearned lessons.
❌ The mistakes.
✅ What worked.
⚠️ What didn’t.

Most people skip this part.
They want a clean slate without doing the hard work of year-end cleanup.
In the military, in projects, and in leadership, we call that a failure to learn.

Before you move on, you should run an After Action Review (AAR) on 2025.
Not a feelings session.
A critical look at how you showed up last year

Four questions. That’s it:
• What did I intend to do in 2025?
• What actually happened?
• Where did the plan and the outcome drift apart?
• What do I need to change in 2026?

🚫 No spin.
🚫 No excuses.
🚫 No “but if only…”

Experience without reflection is just forgotten mileage.
Mileage without learning guarantees repetition.

If you don’t run an AAR on 2025,
2025 will run one on you — and it won’t be kind.

➖ Same habits.
➖ Same baggage.
➖ Same blind spots.
➖ Same outcomes.
Just a different number on the calendar.

So sit down and do the work in the twilight of 2025.
✅ Capture the lessons.
✅ Learn from the lessons
✅ Feed them into the plan.

That's how leaders LEARN
That’s how leaders GROW.
That’s what we call lived experience.