Last year, I did my first ever year in review.

That was a really fun, albeit time-consuming essay to write...

And this year's year in review (or After Action Review, as I like to refer to it) was no different.

2015 was a jam packed year and 2016 is off to a crazy start, so this essay took me many hours to write.

My hope is that you can learn from my successes and my failures.

But before we get to this year's review, I want to explain WHY I do these.

Why You Should Write Your Goals Down...and Measure Your Results

This essay took a while to write. That said - I'm so glad I wrote it; and I encourage you to review and write down your reflections for the past year.

Here's why:

Bottom line: conducting a year-end After Action Review (AAR for short) is a great thing for anyone and everyone to do. So go, do it now if you haven't (and share in the comments your wins from last year and goals for this next year).

A Slight Variation on this Year's AAR

Last year, my AAR consisted of a single evaluation of my entire business / life / projects.

This time, I wanted to give a bit more reflection to individual elements of what I've done, so I'm conducting a series of area-specific AAR's for this past year, and my overall goals for 2015.

I hope this makes it easier to follow and understand what went well and what didn't go well in each area (as well as where I hope to improve)

If you don't know what an AAR is, I explain it in more depth in last years AAR here.

Check that out if you're curious about conducting your own AAR.

For now, just understand that an After Action Review is conducted by answering the following series of questions for a particular event, project, or mission:

  1. What was supposed to happen?
  2. What did happen?
  3. Sustains (what worked that you want to keep doing)?
  4. Improves (what didn't work that you want to stop doing or improve)?

Alright, now that admin is out of the way, let's get to it...

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I love the start of a new year.

The desire (and energy) for positive change; the ideas that become goals (and eventually reality); the seemingly limitless opportunities that beg us to step up to the plate, at least to give it a try...at least this once...

The beginning of every year is a time when aspirations collide with unconquerable optimism in a beautiful, chaotic, hopeful cluster bomb of goals, timelines, and determination.

There's something palpable about it for me, and I love surrounding myself with people who lean into this energy and funnel it into their projects for the new year.

That's why I love reading year end reviews of my favorite personalities, brands, and people, like:

I’ve found that transparent, in-depth year end reviews have serious gold buried in them – the kind that can help the rest of us take our personal and professional goals to the next level.

That’s why today I wanted to share my own year-end review, or what I like to call the 2014 After Action Review. (more…)

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