In my second year as race director for the Aukeman Triathlon, I offered packet pickup throughout the week at specific times and locations. In the five previous years, athletes had to attend a briefing the evening before the race and get their packets then. I put this new information on the website, on the registration site, and conveyed it in emails to the participants. Nonetheless, it took a few years before the majority of returning athletes regularly took advantage of an earlier packet pickup. Many remarked the first year that they didn’t know it had changed.

When we expect things to be a certain way, we don’t look for change. What opportunities might we be missing with this default behavior? Is it worth paying more attention in a busy world when our attention is already drawn in many different directions?