Stack the Wins: Training Success, Not Perfection

When I was going through my Sniper 1 and Sniper 2 courses, one lesson stood out above all the others:

You don’t train failure. You train success.

In sniper training, you’re going to have bad shots. It’s part of the process. But we were taught — over and over again — never to fixate on what went wrong.

If a shot missed, we didn’t sit there picking it apart.

We found one thing we did right — steady breathing, a clean trigger pull, solid body positioning — and we focused onto that small win.

Because when the pressure’s on, you won’t magically rise to the occasion.

You’ll fall to the level of you're training.

If you’ve trained doubt, second-guessing, and hesitation, that’s what will show up.

But if you’ve trained success — if you’ve conditioned your brain to find the win every time — then even in the worst moments, you’ll default to strength.

Small Wins Every Day

This principle doesn’t just belong on the range.

It belongs in everyday life.

Small, deliberate actions can rewire how you respond to stress, obstacles, and setbacks.

Here’s a few ways I train it:

• Change your watch:

  Sometimes, I’ll take my wristwatch off completely — or swap it to my opposite wrist. Every time I go to check the time and feel that difference, it’s a trigger. It reminds me that control belongs to me. That I can adapt. That I can stay aware.

• Switch your dominant hand:

  In the shower, even though I’m left-handed, I’ll sometimes force myself to shave right-handed. It’s uncomfortable. It demands focus. It turns a daily routine into real training.

• Catch yourself in the act:

  Every time you catch yourself falling back into habit — reaching for your watch, reacting without thinking, rushing through routine — you have a chance to choose differently. To choose control.

Small Wins Stack into Big Strength

The truth is, resilience isn’t built on giant moments.

It’s built on small ones — stacked daily, relentlessly, without glory, without fanfare.

Every time you disrupt the easy path and train yourself to stay in control, you’re laying a brick.

Brick by brick, you build a mind and a spirit that can take the hit — and keep moving forward.

At Tactical Camper, we don’t chase perfection.

We train success, one small win at a time.

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This reflection draws on my experiences growing up on the lakes and rivers of Muskoka, leading countless self-directed wilderness excursions, and later retiring as a Sergeant in the Canadian Armed Forces and in law enforcement as a Tactical Officer. The Tactical Camper philosophy is built from a lifetime of outdoor exploration, operational deployments, specialized tactical training, after 22 years of uniformed service — adapted to guide resilience, preparedness, and leadership in everyday life.