➤ Perfectionism: Is the gun still dirty?

➤ Hook & Barrel needs your help: take the survey.

➤ Mission Brief: 5 actionable items to take to war.

Foxhole Friday is about the people you trust when things get heavy. When life stacks pressure from every direction: personal stress, health concerns, and big shifts at work, you find out fast who’s actually in your foxhole. For me, one of those guys is Talon Smith (you may have read lessons from him in a few of these past Foxhole Friday emails).

Over the past few weeks, Talon noticed the weight I was carrying and didn’t offer quick fixes; he asked better questions. One of them cut straight to the root: what actually has to be perfect? I joked that everything does… except the AR I use regularly in the field. It’s filthy. Suppressed, thousands of rounds through it, sometimes needs to be encouraged into battery (nothing to be proud of…) and yet, it still runs. It still does exactly what it was built to do.

Before we dive in, let’s address this month’s focus: perfectionism.

Perfectionism is one of the sneakiest paths to burnout. Not because it looks destructive, but because it often looks like discipline, ambition, and high standards.

It isn’t just “wanting things done right.” It’s the relentless pursuit of an unachievably rigid standard. One where anything short of flawless quietly gets labeled as failure. And once that mindset sets in, your brain starts running on a loop that’s hard to shut off.

A few of the patterns stood out immediately:

One is all-or-nothing thinking. Everything becomes black or white, excellent or a disaster. Wins don’t count nearly as much as mistakes. The pain of what went wrong outweighs the progress made. That’s how you can be moving forward on paper and still feel like you’re falling behind internally.

Another is what psychologists have called the “tyranny of the shoulds.” The constant I should be handling this better, I shouldn’t feel this way, I must have it together by now. On the surface, it feels like motivation. In reality, it creates a constant sense of being behind, of breaking invisible rules, of never quite measuring up — even to standards we invented ourselves.

Then there’s labeling, where a single misstep turns into a verdict on who you are. You don’t just miss the mark, you become the mistake. A bad meeting turns into I’m terrible at this. A rough week turns into I’m failing. It blurs the line between what you did and who you are.

And maybe the most exhausting one: discounting the positives. Achievements get brushed off as luck, timing, or someone else’s doing. Compliments don’t land. Progress doesn’t register. Only what went wrong seems real. When that happens, joy has nowhere to stick.

Here’s the part that really matters: research shows that successful people are often less perfectionistic, not more. These thinking patterns don’t create excellence, they obstruct it. They drain energy, increase anxiety, and slowly wear down self-esteem. That’s where burnout lives.

Which circles back to that dirty rifle…

Talon’s response was simple: If it still works and still completes the mission, maybe perfection isn’t the requirement. That moment stuck. It became our check-in. “Is the gun still dirty?”

That’s what real friends do. Even in the middle of his own storm — his wife having just been in a car accident — Talon called not to talk about himself, but to check on me. No details. No drama. Just presence.

That’s foxhole-level friendship. The kind that reminds you that things don’t have to be perfect to be effective, and that sometimes just showing up is the mission.

AND the takeaway isn’t to stop caring. It’s to stop confusing flawless with functional. Progress with perfection. Worth with performance.

Sometimes the healthiest question isn’t Is this perfect? It’s simply: Is it still running? And if the answer is yes, that’s enough to keep moving forward.

John J. Radzwilla
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Now, Hook & Barrel needs you! We are looking for outdoorsmen and women ages 25-45 to complete our survey re: the modern outdoorsman. If you are within that age bracket, we would truly appreciate your time and response! Results will be seen in the May / June issue of Hook & Barrel Magazine!

5 actionable items to battle perfectionism in your life:

👉🏼 1. Define “Mission-Ready,” Not “Perfect”

Ask yourself one simple question when stress spikes:
“Does this still do what it’s meant to do?”
Your body, your business, your relationships: most don’t need to be flawless, just functional and moving forward. If it still works, stop polishing and move on.

💥 Action: Write down one area you’re over-managing and downgrade the standard from perfect to effective for the next 30 days.

👉🏼 2. Create a Daily Check-In Phrase

Borrow the idea of a shorthand check-in. Something that cuts through the noise and recenters you.

Examples:

💥 Action: Pick one phrase and send it to yourself, or better yet, share it with a trusted friend who’ll use it to check in on you.

👉🏼 3. Audit Your Foxhole

Stress multiplies when you’re surrounded by the wrong voices. Not everyone deserves access when things get heavy.

💥 Action: Identify one or two people who:

Then intentionally lean on them instead of spreading your energy thin.

👉🏼 4. Lower the Bar on One Thing with Purpose

Control is often disguised as “high standards.” Anxiety loves that disguise.

💥 Action: Pick one small thing this week to let stay imperfect: your inbox, the house, the workout, the schedule. Notice that nothing breaks. Relief often shows up right behind that realization.

👉🏼 5. Be the Call, Not the Crisis

One of the most grounding ways to shrink your own stress is to step outside it—briefly.

💥 Action: Call or text one person just to check on them, without turning the conversation back to yourself. It’s not avoidance, it’s perspective. And perspective is one of the fastest anxiety reducers there is.