Askesis Academy

Askesis Academy is a learning environment that works with one specific phenomenon: the gap between "I know what to do" and the actual action.

New knowledge and plans can help, but they may not be enough. In a practice cycle, you try a small action, observe what happens and adjust the conditions that make it difficult to continue.

The Academy creates conditions for those cycles.

Three kinds of knowledge

We distinguish what a person can explain, what they can do and what they can sustain in difficult conditions. The method calls these declarative, procedural and embodied knowledge.

The Academy connects explanation with practice. Participants test what they have learned in a specific situation and review what helps them act.

The disciplinary cycle

The introductory practice lasts seven days. You repeat one small action each day, record what happened and use those observations to choose a next step.

If practice becomes harder on day four or five, we look at the workload and conditions. This can be useful information, but it is not a stage everyone must experience.

From observation to a next step

In each record, separate the facts from your interpretation, suggest an adjustment and decide what to try next. These four steps are labelled L1–L4. The seven-day cycle asks you to complete the sequence at least three times.

Askesis Academy was founded by Georgii Bakhtiyarov — a coach and researcher of disciplinary processes. Alongside the Academy, Georgii runs an individual coaching practice through georgii.coach.

The Academy and individual coaching serve different purposes. Academy participants follow a shared learning programme and review their own practice. Coaching gives one person space to work on a question in a private conversation.