There’s something special to be said about routine. Whatever your weekly flow might be, I wanted to share with you one of my routines: Going to bar trivia night on Mondays.

Let me say now that my team, or whatever team I happen to be playing on, is not usually a powerhouse. We’ve come everywhere between first and last place, and we’re no where near consistent in our rankings. Last week, we came in second place overall. This week, we came in thirteenth. In honor of my poor performance, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few sage and universal tips that I’ve learned through my Monday evening routine.

Get into the Spirit

If you’re the type of person trying to Google the answers to the trivia question, I would like to tell you that I hate you. Competitive people may disagree with me here, but there really is not any point in cheating at something as low stakes as bar trivia. Nothing feels like more of a bummer than working hard just to have to try to compete with cheaters.

When doing something (anything!) you better put your heart into it. If you’re thinking about starting a business, you will need to devote yourself to it. If you’re not really in it, you’re not gonna make progress. You can’t always rush or half-ass things. Not all answers in life can be found on Google. You are better than cheating to win.

Trust Your Gut

More often than not, your first instincts will be right. If something pops out at you from the dusty corners of your brain in relation to a pop culture question, you should trust it. Do you know what Alexander Fleming discovered? The answer is penicillin, but you didn’t trust your instincts. You put Pluto instead. (Yeah, I know that was a bad answer, but don’t @ me.)

Intuition is something special. If something simply doesn’t feel right, maybe you should reconsider or at least take time to think about that feeling. There’s nothing wrong with following that initial gut reaction.

Feeling Discouraged?

Just this past week, my team came in nearly last place. While we were certainly not happy with the outcome, we know that we can come back and have a clean slate next week. While winning is really fun, it’s okay to not win all the time.

If you’re feeling less than thrilled about whatever it is you are working on, there is always another day to try to make better. Don’t let some bumps in the road make you feel like everything is ruined. If you’re passionate about what you’re working on, just take a little break and then get back to it.

You’re a star, and I know that with some practice, you can come in first place! But it’s okay to come in last place sometimes, too.