5 Days to Your Best Work Yet Josh Schneider Copyright © 2017 Joshua Schneider All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-1542352499 ISBN-10: 1542352495 CONTENTS Acknowledgments i Hike the ball 2 Day One 9 Day Two 18 Day Three 26 Day Four 33 Day Five 45 Ok, so now what 51 30 Day 53 Breakthrough ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my wife Jenna who has been by my side and seen me wake up every day to fight the battle I desire to see everyone win. You have made this journey far richer and more valuable. Your insight and encouragement are woven into the fabric of who I am. Every life I have the privilege of impacting is better off because I have you in my life. You’re also a kick ass Mom. Brooklyn told me to tell you. i Before we start… Although I love great design work – this book created to be simple. It’s meant to be an essential resource to help you get going in 5 days. By the end of the week – your work and life will have shifted direction and you COULD take a massive step forward in your work performance. You and I are human beings, which means we won the lottery. We can change, grow and go after anything in life that we want. As Jim Rohn said…If you don’t like how things are, change it. You’re not a tree. So, what needs to change? In the next five days could you? Discover what breakthrough feels like? Begin to double your performance at work? Cut your stress in half? Increase your energy and be more excited every day? Being to unleash your human potential? If any of these sound fun to you….then let’s continue. 1 JOSH SCHNEIDER HIKE THE BALL SLAM INTO THE LINE HOPE FOR BREAKTHROUGH 22 Deaths. 150 serious injuries. No it’s not a story from the war front, these were statistics from the 1905 college football season. The game had become brutal. However, this was the good ole boys game and this was the way the game was played – you hiked the ball, you slammed into the line (the other team) and you hoped for breakthrough. There were different way to do this but at the end of the day it was just hike the ball, slam into the line and hope for breakthrough. There became a large movement to cancel football due to its level of danger, and there was a very real chance the game would be outlawed. President Teddy Roosevelt stepped in and offered some alternative suggestions. He acknowledged things had to change but also wanted to preserve the game he loved. So new rules were drawn up and put in place. These rules would be an innovative step forward for the game and increase the safety of the players. The 1906 season was kicking off and honestly, there was little anticipation of the new rules. There was a way to play football 2 5 DAYS TO YOUR BEST WORK YET and these new rules….. weren’t the way you played ball. As players around the country took the field in the crisp fall weather of September 1906 – they had no intention of changing their approach. Hike the ball, slam into the line and hope for breakthrough worked last year, so wouldn’t it work this year? Out west the narrative was different as Saint Louis University took on Carrol College. Both teams lined up and started the game just like everyone else but a bit into the first half Coach Eddie Cochems of Saint Louis University sent the signal to his star play Bradbury Robinson. Brad called the play and the players broke the huddle and as he hiked the ball, instead of slamming forward, he dropped back... the crowd came to a hush as this caught them off guard. After dropping back and waiting a moment he placed the ball in his hand and heaved it forward over the heads of the men who stood blocking in front of him. As the ball was in the air the crowd went completely silent, they had never seen anything like this before. They looked on as Jack Schneider who was running down the field missed the catch and the ball bounced off the ground. The referees signaled a turnover due to the incomplete pass the crowd began to jeer and shout. This failed completion was the first forward pass attempt – ever. In the history of football. After a few strong defensive plays, Saint Louis University got the ball back and the offense returned to the field. Conventional thinking would have been to resume hiking the ball, slamming into the line and hoping for breakthrough. It had worked in the past – so why not keep playing that way. Side note…The reality is when there are new rules or ways of 3 JOSH SCHNEIDER thinking available to us in life we will face resistance in applying them. It will be different – and most of us don’t like different. Let alone the voice inside our head, others will try to keep us safe and prevent the potential failure that comes along with change. As Bradbury stepped to line to hike the ball he knew what had to be done. He had to push aside the failure of the last play, to silence the jeers of the crowd and focus on the opportunity in front of him. So…. he hiked the ball and dropped back just like last time. Again he placed the ball in his hand and heaved it forward toward the streaking Jack Schneider. But this time it was different, Jack caught the ball and ran like hell towards the end zone – and in the process made history. Saint Louis University went on to win the game 22-0 and finish the season undefeated. Not only did they not lose a game but they also outscored opponents 407 – 11. Today in the workplace, there are new rules which we can activate and play by. New rules that when you put into our playbook will give us the edge we crave in this rapidly evolving business economy. The interesting part about the forward pass was not until 1913 (7 years later) did it started to take root in football. Its use was solidified when Notre Dame used a passing style of play to finally upset the goliath of the time, Army. Coach Cochems said in an interview: “It’s really a puzzle to me why the other teams are not given new style plays by their coaches,” he went on to say “Eastern elevens are using nothing but the old-style formations… It will be a matter of a season or two until the coaches throughout the country come around to my way of thinking or I will be badly 4 5 DAYS TO YOUR BEST WORK YET mistaken.” Just because something has been done a certain way doesn’t mean it’s how it should always be. It’s not too late to adapt to a new style of play and unleash untold possibility. The opportunity has not yet passed for you too to unlock your potential. Now enter 5 Days to Your Best Work Yet. In 5 days we will take a massive step forward in your performance at work. When I was at the CPA firm I found a majority of my work related questions were answered with - what did we do last year? This is not about what you did last year. This is about what you’re going to do this year…. and the next and the next. If we’re going to disrupt our work and innovate our personal performance to unleash new possibilities it’s not going to be doubling down on what’s worked in the past. The time to disrupt our work is right now. Like today. Don’t believe me – hold on to the way things have been for another year and it could be the year that you give up on your dream – or your goals slip past you one last time. It’s time to no longer just play it safe. Actually, when did being risk adverse become the safe move? At what point in our personal history did we decide that playing safe was going to help us live the life we ultimately wanted. 5 JOSH SCHNEIDER During the 1906 season a forward pass if incomplete was treated the same as a punt. So if the pass was incomplete it was ruled a turnover. Turning the ball over in the wrong part of the field was a huge risk. That huge risk – rewrote the history of football. This one time incredible risk is now the cornerstone of a great superbowl winning team. The quarterback. A position that barely existed at one point and is now one of the highest paid positions in the NFL. Taking the right risk has huge reward. The time of hiking the ball, slamming into the line and hoping for breakthrough is done. It’s time to hike the ball, step back and actually GET BREAKTHROUGH! In your career and development - NOW is the time to take a step back and change how you show up every day – this guide will give you clarity and objectives in how to achieve that. THIS IS ABOUT UNLEASHING THE VERY BEST YOU. Maybe through this we can create the life and work you ultimately want. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the top of the mountain or if life finds you digging a trench of safety at the bottom – this book will help you become more engaged and tap into your human potential.