Six months is long enough for first consequences to appear, short enough that you still remember what you believed at decision time. A retrospective is not a court where you convict your past self; it is an engineering postmortem for life choices.
The four prompts
- What actually happened vs what I expected? (facts, not vibes)
- Which assumptions were right, which were wrong, and which remain unknown?
- If I could send one paragraph of advice back in time, what would it say?
- What would I do differently in process — not in outcome — next time?
Why separating outcome from process matters
Good decisions can produce bad outcomes because of luck. Bad decisions can produce good outcomes the same way. If you only judge by outcome, you will learn the wrong lessons. Process review asks whether your past self had access to information they should have gathered — not whether the universe rewarded them.
When not to do this alone
If the decision involved another person’s safety, autonomy, or shared finances, consider running the retrospective with a neutral third party (therapist, mediator, planner). The article stays general; your situation may need professional framing.
Try the framework
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Use the structured decision engine to map scenarios, lenses, and a 5-year timeline for what you are actually facing.
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