Championships get decided in the off-season, when there’s no crowd and nothing on the line.

Results are produced long before they are displayed. The work that decides an outcome happens in unremarkable conditions, with no audience and no immediate feedback, which is precisely why so few people do it. By the time there is something on the line, the question has largely been settled.

Look at what your own off season is. The hours nobody assigns you, the weeks between deadlines, the part of the year when nothing is due. Put something small and regular into it. It will feel like it does not count, and it is the part that does.