The sky’s the limit, although a cliché, is an apt metaphor for this course, because it captures the idea that many of us sell ourselves short and underachieve. Like the sky, we don’t know our limits. Like the sky, we can sparkle radiant blue once the clouds of doubt and fear dissolve so that our natural, unique, creative brilliance can shine through.

The truth is we don’t know how high we can fly or how far we can go once we have the passion and presence of mind, the resilience and quality of effort, to pursue our dreams.

We need to learn how to learn.

This course is based on the story of my own learning journey in school, university, business, public service, and in my personal relationships. My achievements and especially my failures have taught me about the art of learning, particularly deep learning towards excellence.

The course is also informed by my research into the art of learning, masterly learning, the acquisition of expertise and learning to learn. My intention is to share my knowledge and experience so that others can pursue their dreams more effectively. Or, to help anyone lost for direction and purpose to find sparks of meaning that excite and ignite.

As Irish poet William Butler Yates put it: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but rather the lighting of a fire.”

To live is to learn; the only way to stop learning is to die (and even then, who knows)? The only useful questions are WHAT are we learning and HOW well are we learning. This course can help students make better learning choices about ‘what’ and ‘how’.

The course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn something as well as they can so they can perform and achieve as best they can. What a person learns—a subject, profession, hobby, sport, art form or pretty much anything else—matters less that how a person learns.

Students will also learn to learn and to find joy in learning deeply, so they can transfer their knowledge and love of learning to anything they genuinely desire. I had direct experience of this: what I learned about myself and about learning in completing an Ironman triathlon at 61 enabled me to complete a PhD at 69.

The course features:

• a series of 10 structured lectures

• key concepts, terms and principles

• the nuts and bolts of the art of learning

• examples from my own and others’ learning experiences

• exercises to make the material more alive, real and interactive

• questions to consider and address in the discussion section

As a teacher of learning I need to stretch students enough, but not so much that they break or breakdown. We only learn when we are stretched by challenges, at the point of resistance, when we run into “I don’t know that” or “I don’t know how to do that”.

Preparing this course has been a stretch for me, not because I lack knowledge or material, but because I’m learning the technology of presenting, producing, editing and publishing online videos. In so doing, I’m walking my talk. I know that I can’t get to second base, much less score a home run, until I get to first.

The course can help you:

• became a passionate and joyful learner

• understand the principles of high level learning

• cultivate a mindset that is conducive to learning and achievement

• know a strategy that lies behind acquiring expertise

• appreciate the importance of passion, resilience, effort and presence

• appreciate the pitfalls and tricky bits

This course is all about relationships, more than about things or entities. Relationships between students, between students and the lecturer, between students and the course content and activities, between students and their entire lifeworld.

Upon completion of the course you should be:

• clearer about your dreams and intentions and how to follow them

• see learning as incremental and unending

• able to learn faster, perform better and achieve more

• appreciate the joy, beauty and value of Quality to you and others

• learn how to learn so that you can apply your knowledge to anything you desire

• appreciate the value of intuition in high-level learning

The course is divided into 10 modules of lectures. Lectures run on average for approximately 15 minutes. The lectures will include exercises for students to do either by pausing the lecture or after the lecture. There will also be questions posed that students can answer in the discussion section.

Conversation in the discussion section is encouraged. The more active and reflective students are in conversation, the more they learn and the more fulfilling the learning journey.

Learn How to Learn Now!

Use Great Learning Strategies in Your Learning Journey Towards Excellence!

Enrol now and join me in the course!

Peter le Breton