Letter #13: A Unique Invitation for you!
Lifelong learners start a new life afresh each day!
Dear Friend
This week’s Letter carries a unique opportunity for you!
This Letter is about LEARNING, and how I can guide you into becoming a master of the skill that lies at the core of everything we do, say, think, feel as human beings in this game of life we’ve been pitched into.
Learning is a skill, an attitude, a mindset, a way of life, and making yourself a lifelong learner protects you from, and enables you to solve, all kinds of potential problems, pains, sufferings.
Here’s my (own) favourite quote which describes why I hold learning to be the most important thing we can do for ourselves, and for our planet:
“When you discover the joy of learning, you discover the joy of living; when you master the skill of learning, you master the skill of living.”
Skilled learners are skilled navigators of life who have taken charge of their own health, life and destiny. Learning how to learn means learning how to live. Learning is the ‘mother of all skills’.
Joy is not to be underestimated! Joy and fun have always been my macro objectives in life. This is ‘today-based’ living.
Yet, where can you go to study a course in the skills of learning or living?! (Which is why what I’m offering is unique, and certainly uplifting.)
As an educator who actually teaches the skill of learning (and hardly anybody teaches this skill), I would go so far as to say:
learning how to learn and becoming a lifelong learner is the single most important, beneficial, and exciting thing you can do for yourself in the whole gamut of your life.
In fact, in these turbulent and often deeply troubling times we all live in, being a skilled learner is essential to prevent most problems, overcome inevitable challenges, and to forge for yourself a self-directed, uplifting and rewarding life.
The extra bonus magic, though, is that you automatically find yourself contributing to the healing of humankind because you have now become the change you want to see in our world.
If you would like
to live with health and wellbeing
to build and maintain strong loving relationships
to be productive, creative and reflective
to live with purpose, passion and a proactive orientation
to stop hiding your potential and manifest it instead
to ditch self-doubt and replace it with self-confidence and self-esteem
and to take on, and overcome, all challenges
then simply learn how to learn, master the skill of using your mind.
(That’s a cool seven benefits!)
But do know this: you didn’t learn how to learn at school. They don’t teach this skill.
Nor do they teach us how to communicate. In fact, communication and learning go hand in hand. Develop one and you develop the other.
We’ve all been screwed by our school systems.
My educated guess is that because the school systems are so useless, 99% of adults are unskilled in learning and communication. This is devastating for a social animal living in very testing times!
How would your life change if you mastered the skill of learning?
To reiterate: we’re not talking about learning this or that, but simply the process of learning, the activity itself of your mind and heart working in tandem to interpret all your life’s experiences, and to then influence how you express yourself, or not.
If you struggle to express yourself, then you are not being your true self, and that leads to all kinds of stresses, often ones we cannot see.
To reconnect with the intelligent, gifted, talented beautiful human being you were born to be, that the schools suppressed in you, will require you to unlearn and relearn by learning how to learn, and learning how to be an articulate, confident and compassionate communicator.
As with all skills in life, we have to learn the tricks, the strategies, and we have to consistently practise to achieve and maintain mastery.
And the learning skill is innate in all human beings. Nobody cannot do it, nobody will fail, nobody cannot achieve mastery.
But our schools did their best, and still do, to snuff it out of us. My mission is to reverse that nonsense, to activate a slumbering giant within each adult: achieve self-empowerment through self-education.
Become a skilled, lifelong learner and see how your life lifts off.
~~~~~
Your invitation to a masterclass in the learning skill
Last week I said we’d have a different kind of Letter today, and so it is:
I would like to invite you to learn directly with me (live and online), and this means learning collaboratively in small groups of like-minded people who all desire a better, healthier, happier life for themselves and for the whole of humankind.
As a really valued subscriber to these Letters you will always get first call to enroll on all my new and upcoming masterclasses, courses, and other exciting learning materials and programs I’ll be devising, creating and teaching.
This invitation is my first offering, and my working title for the masterclass is, ‘Learning How to Master the Learning, Communication and Holistic Living Skills’.
My vision and mission are simple: I see self-empowering self-education as a direct path—the ONLY path—to the healing of humankind, which means ordinary human beings like you and me healing ourselves.
And there are very very few people on this planet of ours who do not need healing!
My objective for the next 4-5 years is to reach, train and inspire a million adults to empower themselves by facilitating them in mastering the learning, communication and holistic living skills.
To reach such large numbers is only possible through video training, but first I want to spend the rest of this year doing my usual live training, albeit online rather than my university classroom.
And live learning in a collaborative, supportive environment is so much more the complete educational package than video learning, or when learning by oneself.
As with all my teaching, I will take you along a learning journey of guided discovery and train you in self-inquiry. As I said above, we are so much more intelligent, talented and beautiful than the school system and society ever encouraged us to be…
… and so we all struggle with self-doubt and lack of self-worth, struggle in our relationships, and we underachieve, procrastinate and feel powerless to change our life around because this rotten, discouraging and demoralising schooling disempowered and dehumanised us.
It’s no wonder we struggle with emotional wellbeing, mental health and spiritual emptiness, not to mention all manner of afflictions, ailments, illness and disease.
Enough of all that nonsense!
We will learn our way out of this dreadful mess.
While right now I’m inviting you specifically be one of the original masterclass participants, the invitation is one in general for you to learn live and direct with me in the coming months to empower yourself with the skills, knowledge and inner belief you need to experience a life infused with good health, fun, joy and love.
At the bottom of this Letter I will share with you what my students have to say about learning with me. Suffice for me to say, you get an all-encompassing holistic complete and inspiring learning experience, on multiple levels and dimensions!
Your journey to mastering the learning and communication skills, while learning how to live holistically and harmoniously, starts this month (April 2024) with a masterclass, which will be followed by my upcoming Foundation Class.
I have yet to finalise content, the title, and the date for this masterclass, but I will confirm it all in next week’s Letter. My working title is this:
‘A Masterclass in Learning How To Master the Learning, Communication and Holistic Living Skills’
This masterclass will illustrate to you, first hand, how real learning takes place because you’ll be doing and experiencing the real learning yourself, and you’ll be reflecting upon what you did in the final part of the masterclass.
You will find yourself doing a guided listening activity, a guided reading activity, being involved in much discussion and a conducting a reflection activity at the end to bring everything together.
Then a Q and A session to help you decide if you want to be part of the Foundation Course that follows.
How to get on the masterclass
The moment you instinctively feel you want to begin the journey of learning live with me, please email me by replying to this email you are reading this Letter on, and let me know you want to be on the masterclass.
If you know you want to join now, reply now!
You need only type something like: “Yes please, get my name on the list”. I will then reserve you a spot, and we can confirm everything next week.
As I’m at the outset of this venture, I can offer the full personal touch, so all you need to do is email me to get your spot ensured.
It can only be first come first served because…
All my live learning workshops, masterclasses and courses can only have limited numbers to ensure a top quality, task-based and convivial learning experience, and for the moment the limit will be 16 participants for online masterclasses, and 12 students for the courses.
The masterclass will be on a date some time in April, and it will cost you £55. The masterclass will be for about two and a half hours, including a Q and A session at the end relating to the Foundation Course which follows.
My plan is to teach the masterclass and then about a month later teach my first live and online Foundation Course. The masterclass gives you a full taster of the learning experience my students get with me, and will immediately make you know if you want in on the course too.
(There is nothing like this course out there, I’ve looked and looked and looked! But that’s because everybody is too busy teaching rather than making learning happen.)
Let me be completely open here: there are about 50-60 of you who are reading these Letters (and I treasure you all, I am chuffed at your continued presence!), and as an educator, as a professional and as a widely-travelled person, I have various others channels to invite others to join these unique masterclasses and courses, but, as a valued subscriber, you will always get first call on joining anything I create.
For now I want to focus only on you and your fellow Letter readers. I want you all to have the chance to be one of my major pioneers of my mission to heal humankind through self-empowering education.
If demand from subscribers goes beyond 16, I will make sure you get on by offering a second and concurrent masterclass. If demand for the Foundation Course goes beyond 12, I will similarly offer a concurrent second course.
Once you’ve all had your opportunity, and if some spaces are still open, only then will I invite others to join.
So, that means you committing now, this week some time, or next Monday when I bring you the full info.
As I say, though, the very moment you feel in your gut you want to be part of it, just let me know by email. It will stop you persuading yourself out of taking part (self-sabotage at work!), and it will help me plan things.
If you already feel you really want to learn with me every chance you get, then you are also welcome to express your interest on joining the Foundation Course that follows the Masterclass (the course is planned to run perhaps mid-May onwards). I will then reserve you a space without any commitment on your part, just your expression of interest in being a student.
~~~~~
I personally become ignited with passion, purpose, joy and enthusiasm for life when I’m in the classroom working with my adult or adolescent students. I love teaching, it’s almost a spiritual experience for me!
Hitherto it’s been in my university classrooms, now I’m going online because humankind is screwed from its lack of cognitive skills, health knowledge and self-esteem, and once I’ve done various live courses, I can then start offering video courses and then my reach will be far greater.
I will also focus in 2025 on training up teachers, parents, home educators, activists, world helpers and leaders of all kinds, because they will be then reaching lots of people who they hold responsibility for in some shape or form.
The learning and communication skills, the holistic health knowledge, and the mindset of self-growth and self-worth that my students acquire with me is precisely what’s needed by every single human being on the planet.
My teaching is not an education that tells you what to do, it’s an education that trains you to do what you want to do in your context of life and based on your own unique set of talents, skills and life experiences.
The beauty and magic of this kind of education is that everything you learn from me you will then be skilled in and able to pass onto others in kind. My teaching makes you a dynamic leader and educator - of yourself as well as others.
It’s why I call my new education platform The Infinity Learning Academy.
A reminder of ‘Challenge 2024: Unleash Your Spirit’
What might you be learning about on this learning journey with me, whether a masterclass, course or discussion group?
(Which you are already on by receiving these Letters.)
Here’s an extract from the original message inviting you to join me in Challenge 2024: Unleash Your Spirit.
“… we’re talking enduring changes to last you for the rest of your time, putting you in charge of your own life, health and destiny:
develop your learning, communication and problem-solving skills
conduct self-inquiry leading to self-discovery and self-knowledge (become the real unique true you)
develop self-awareness, self-confidence and self-belief
live consciously with holistic health and wellbeing in mind, body and soul, by cultivating right relationship with the world.”
And these were the stated objectives:
stop hiding your potential and MANIFEST IT
stop doubting yourself and BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
stop holding yourself back and UNLEASH YOUR SELF
and optimise your HEALTH HARMONY AND HAPPINESS
Email me now if you are ready to do so, or wait until next Monday when I have the full information and confirmed date/s for the masterclass.
Student testimonials and feedback
To finish with, have a read of what a few of my teacher students say about their time learning with me. You will get a good feel for the kind of learning experience you will get with me if you come on board my mission.
Most are teachers studying for their Master’s in TESOL, but some are trainee teachers studying for their Certificate.
Many more testimonials including video ones, and a synopsis of my life’s work, can be found here.
“Philip is a phenomenal teacher of human language, behavior, and psychology who deepened my understanding of our shared experience in many remarkable ways.” ~ Michael Guenza, USA
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“Ajarn Philip is an exceptional teacher I had the fortune to have taken classes with. He has a special gift in drawing students out of their shells to participate in class, even with a shy and normally reserved person like me. Classes with him challenged students to express, reason and make the process of learning enjoyable. He is definitely one of a few handful of educators who has left a deep impression on my academic career.” ~ Grace Dee, Myanmar
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“Philip far exceeded any expectation I had of what a good teacher should be. He asked deep questions which planted the seeds of continued self-development in his students. He taught us to put students first and practised this himself in teaching us… Philip encouraged us to go beyond just teaching English, to considering our role as one in which we could make the world a better place. Philip really taught me a lot and what he taught me is behind so much of my current teaching practice and self-development. He has a true teaching spirit.” ~ Oliver Dilly, England
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“I have come across many outstanding teachers, but Philip is an extraordinary teacher who is able to connect with his students of all ages. He always respects every student’s ideas and opinions with a positive attitude and wonderful rapport. During my studies in his classroom, all my classmates and l (who are from many different countries & backgrounds) were allowed to share our ideas which were shaped by him to come up as marvellous ideas. Again, it is a priceless opportunity to learn how to scaffold the students to become independent learners.” ~ Nang Ji, Myanmar
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“In Philip’s classroom, we didn’t just learn principles and ideas, we experienced them through his presence and actions. His wisdom, professionalism, calming spirit, gentle sense of humor, wealth of experience, and respect for human dignity have shaped me as a learner and as a university faculty member.” [PS I still consider you one of the all-time best teachers I’ve ever had.] ~ Dr Oliver S. Crocco, Assistant Professor of Leadership and Human Resource Development, Louisiana State University, USA
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“He knows how to teach. He showed me, not taught me, how I should behave in a second language classroom.” ~ Liz Ning, China
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“Philip always motivates us to speak a lot. Everybody becomes talkative in his lesson. He always choose the attractive activities. He tries to make us communicate with different peers by changing the seats frequently to learn different things. There are an ocean of ways he uses to change seats. By doing it the whole atmosphere in the classroom becomes free, relaxed and active.
He never offers us answer to a question directly. We have to talk to others and then get the answer ourselves. This embodies the nature of learner-centredness and we’re responsible for our learning.
Philip sets a lot of examples for me to improve my teaching, especially about how to motivate students to participate in talking actively.”
~ Course feedback from a teacher at Kunming University of Science and Technology, China
So there you have it, over to you! If you are reading this Letter on my website, email me at philip@aspiritualrevolution.com to let me know you’d like to join.
Enjoy your week, see you next week with the full info for the Masterclass.
