instead of "Set & Forget" your vision, try this (Wonder Dispatch)
How a deliberate recalibration realigns long-term direction and impact
Hello,
We’re approaching Q3 and the summer season. This is an ideal time to weigh the value of recalibrating your vision. Whether you are a founder navigating shifting markets or a team leader seeking renewed purpose, revisiting your vision - especially in Q3 and the summer season - can anchor the impact you want to have.
On this note, I’m about to lead 12 change‑makers in the UNPLUGGED+UNBOUND Immersive Retreat, an intentional extended pause to reimagine visions for work and life. Because I’ll be unplugged with them next week, The Wonder Dispatch may be on pause next Sunday as well but back the following week with fresh insights.
I am honored to work alongside thoughtful change‑makers - entrepreneurs, executives, and creatives- in retreats, mastermind cohorts, and one‑on‑one sessions to guide intentional pauses and real‑time recalibration of long‑term visions.
In my work, I’ve noticed 4 patterns:
1 - Leaders and change-makers who flourish over the long game shape them.
2 - Once mapped, visions are often forgotten. “Set and Forget” is common. By some reports, over 80% of small business owners never review their annual goals once they set them. (Oops.)
3 - Visions change whether we remember them or forget them.
And the most important here:
4 - Leaders and change-makers who flourish over the long game regularly revisit and recalibrate their visions.
Charting a course matters, but so does returning to that map.
Recalibrating your emergent vision can invite you to rediscover purpose and pursue emergent possibilities - however rapidly or slowly & wisely.
Let’s see what that looks like and why it matters.
In this week’s Wonder Dispatch:
Jeffrey’s Main Wondering: How does vision recalibration serve lasting impact and individual flourishing?
Your Turn to Wonder: Reflect on your own vision practice and consider next steps (see prompt below).
TW Community Howl-Outs & On Jeffrey & Team TW’s Radar: A couple of wonderful announcements for TW community members + Resources for you
Once a quarter, I lead Vision Recalibration Sessions with founders, leaders, and professionals especially in the Tracking Wonder Inner Circle Masterminds.
Each session follows a similar arc: we retrieve the original vision canvas, celebrate genuine progress, honor how our genius and young genius strengths have been activated, acknowledge shifts and external threats in context, and identify areas calling for adjustment.
Instead of a chore, the exercise energizes people with actionable insights.
Why Revisit an Emergent Vision?
Visions, by nature, should evolve. Let’s say you agree that some ideas and complex endeavors ask to grow slowly and wisely - and not just to scale and waste.
When you have a living emergent vision captured in a vision canvas, fluid business plan, or fluid roadmap, then you can make deliberate adjustments with your emergent idea or dream endeavor. You can learn to notice emerging patterns, hone in on whom you’re really elevating and captivating, experiment on a small scale, assess results, and iterate - all while staying present to current circumstances.
Here’s the beauty: The people I work with in this modality say they feel renewed agency and unexpected enjoyment in the journey itself. And we know that joy and elevated moods motivate us as well as boost our creative intelligence and solution-seeking.
A few principles you can test out
Reflect on Priorities, Goals, & Milestones - Revisit the vision, guiding statement, set of goals, or plan you set earlier. What felt essential then? Which elements resonate still, and which now feel misaligned?
Honor Progress & Genius Strengths - Name one or two concrete signs of forward movement - perhaps a service you piloted, a skill you discovered in yourself or your team, or an unanticipated win. Recognizing progress fuels motivation.
Listen to Your People, Your Heroes - Check in with the people you elevate or lead: what new challenges or needs have surfaced? What new segment of people has emerged? How does that data shift priorities or inform possibilities?
Scan the Context - Note any external changes such as market trends, technology shifts, or your own personal circumstances. Which assumptions underpinning your original vision no longer hold?
Reset your Sights - Based on these reflections, identify one modest action for the next quarter: revised W.I.S.E. Goals, a brief pilot, an outreach plan, or a personal practice to strengthen a needed capacity. Be curious with an eye toward actionable, feasible priorities.
These principles sample what can happen.
In one session, a nonprofit director realized that initial growth targets mattered less than nurturing deeper relationships with their core audience. By shifting emphasis toward small community-building experiments, they stabilized engagement with their audience and even grew more reliably than before. This pivot emerged from testing what truly resonated now without losing sightt of the long-game vision.
Two cautions:
»> Beware the “set-and-forget” trap. Drafting a vision once, then ignoring it, risks misalignment and frustration.
»> Balance devotion and evidence. Hold aspiration alongside data-gathering: listen to stakeholders, sense market signals, and test lightly before large commitments.
This ongoing practice can keep you motivated, invite your creative intelligence, and ground decisions in both long‑term intent and present realities.
If you want a guided framework to structure a fuller recalibration process, I might - depending upon interest - present those elements in-depth in deep-dive articles I publish on Thursdays. If that interests you, see the premium edition of The Wonder HUB.
You also can reach out here to discuss what your and my work together could look like with a private Vision Canvas Workshop + 4 quarterly recalibration sessions, starting in September.
Your Turn to Wonder
»> Which part of your vision for this year feels out of sync with today’s reality?
»> What progress deserves celebration, and where might assumptions need revision?
»> What one small experiment could help you realign purpose and practice this quarter?
Reply or share in our Wonder HUB thread. I read each note.
I appreciate your showing up for the work that matters and this one life of possibility - no matter what. I’ll see you soon.
Thanks for running with me,
Jeffrey
Reintroduction to new readers: I’m founder of Tracking Wonder Consultancy and author of Tracking Wonder (Sounds True), a Next Big Idea Club finalist. Fast Company, MindBody Green, Psychology Today, and other leading outlets - I’m grateful to say - have featured my insights.
For over 20 years, I’ve equipped entrepreneurs, creatives, and teams to think more expansively and bring more meaning into their work so they can advance their best ideas. Without burnout. Learn more about this work and The Wonder HUB here.
On Jeffrey’s and Team TW’s Radar - community shout-outs + resources for your curiosity
Email or DM me if you have a resource you think would light up our TW Community.
»> Big book launch news for former client & 3x TW Inner Circle MasterMind Alum Bethany Hegedus - Batter Up for the First Day of School! (Penguin Random House) came out in May and Yours, Mine, and Ours: A Celebration of Service and Community (Penguin Random House) by Bethany and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Arun comes out July 8! A double (with a triple play on its way)! Congrats, Bethany!
»> TW Inner Circle MasterMind Alum Fran Wescott is competing in this season’s Great American Recipe on PBS. Congrats, Fran!
»> Navigating with aliveness (Oliver Burkemann) - Oliver’s wonderful metrics for a meaningful life will resonate with people who track wonder (h/t to Dense Discovery)
»> Taste of the Land (documentary | Emergence Magazine) - (h/t to ArtMark Branding Academy alum Evelyn Asher)
»> all my friends and i talk about is getting rid of our phones (powme | quirine brower) - beautifully captures the tension and what we’re pushing against (h/t to
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