PHILADELPHIA, PA — For those who think Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a failing fuel, Philadelphia educator and former college and Georgia high school football coach Marc Schneider sees it as a superpower for OCD: Obsessive Character Development. He has engineered a different way forward. His newly released work, The Character Route Tree: A Memoir, a Method, a Mastery of Obsessive Character Development, is not a standard self-help narrative; it is a 760-page standalone engine designed to replace fleeting inspiration with obsessive, calculated discipline.
While born from Schneider’s own struggle with clinical OCD, he clarifies that this system is not just for those with a diagnosis—it is for anyone seeking a narrative of mastery. It is a work that rejects the traditional pursuit of “perfection” in favor of the strategic application of “obsession.” Schneider argues that the same intensity that often leads to internal chaos can, when properly engineered, become the architecture of a resilient life.
The project originally began as a standalone self-help guide, but it soon underwent a critical “gut check.” Schneider realized that to author a work as definitive for Character as The Power Broker was for the mechanics of power, he had to be willing to throw his own life open. Consequently, he spent two years tearing fifty years of his life apart, deciding that he could not offer a playbook for the mind without first revealing his own time in the trenches.
“You have to understand the struggle in the trenches before you can run the routes in the playbook.”
The result of that teardown is Part I: The Yearbook, a raw and unfiltered memoir that serves as the essential pregame to the Method. It traces a harrowing path from a childhood defined by abuse and a decade-long war with self-destruction—highlighted by a 66-mph suicide attempt going the wrong way on Route 9 in New Jersey—to finding absolute direction through calculated discipline with nine specific routes. This volume is a masterclass in mental conversion, demonstrating how the “noise” of a chaotic mind is converted into a high-performance engine.
The transition from struggle to strategy happens in Part II: The Playbook. Built on the logic that character is engineered rather than accidental, Schneider uses the framework of a football route tree to break down development into nine distinct mental patterns. Each “route” is designed to help individuals navigate pressure and self-direction. Throughout this section, readers rebuild their internal language through boldface ACRONYMS, specifically the foundational philosophy A Coach’s Rationale: Obsessively Nurture Your Moral Sanity.
Central to this methodology is the ACT Framework, a repeatable three-step drill to stop mental friction: Ask (create awareness), Commit (choose a mindset), and Try (run the play).
The engine is completed by Part III: The Workbook, a searchable, tactical Glossary of 850 Acronyms. Schneider argues that in high-pressure moments, the brain does not have time for paragraphs; it needs a code. These acronyms provide the exact language needed to anchor discipline and reinforce moral sanity the moment life applies pressure.
Schneider’s transition from a broadcast professional at CNN to Bill Curry’s inaugural football staff at Georgia State University, to a Georgia high school football coach, and finally to a veteran educator in Philadelphia allowed him to merge decades of professional discipline with a deep passion for human development. Ultimately, The Character Route Tree stands alone as a brutally honest and unexpectedly hopeful blueprint for those ready to understand the struggle before running the routes toward self-directed mastery.
