About the Title – Why “A Holistic Approach”?

Self-improvement fails when it’s treated as a single fix; this book is holistic because lasting change
requires belief, skill, and habit working together.

Why “holistic”? Why not just “self-improvement”?

Because I tried the narrow version first, and it didn’t work.

I thought reading self-help books was enough. It wasn’t. I thought adding positive thinking on top of my faith and self-belief would complete the picture. I was wrong again. I wanted more — and I couldn’t yet name why.

The turning point came almost by accident. I bought a DVD titled “The Secret” without knowing what it was — the store had mixed it in with other genres, no synopsis, nothing to explain it. I watched it skeptical, then curious, then genuinely changed. That led me to Bob Proctor, and from there to a long list of thinkers — Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Earl Nightingale.

What struck me across all of them was this: none of them treated self-improvement as one lever to pull. Every lasting example of growth I found required cultivating the right attitudes and beliefs, developing real skills and abilities, and consistently practicing the right daily habits. Not one of these in isolation. All three, together.

This book is organized around that conviction — a Value System, a Competence Framework, and a Habit Scheme, held together by self-discipline. It’s not a shortcut. It’s a fuller map.

Pause and Reflect

Which single area have you been trying to fix on its own, while the rest quietly stayed the same?

One Step Forward

Name the one dimension — belief, skill, or habit — you’ve most neglected. Write one sentence describing what giving it real attention would look like this week.

Explored in full in the Preface of A Holistic Approach to Self-Improvement.

Better Self… Better Life… Better Nation.

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About M.A.D. LIGAYA

I am a teacher, writer, and lifelong learner with diverse interests in prose and poetry, education, research, language learning, and personal growth and development. My primary advocacy is the promotion of self-improvement. Teaching, writing, and lifelong learning form the core of my passions. I taught subjects aligned with my interests in academic institutions in the Philippines and South Korea. When not engaged in academic work, I dedicate time to writing stories, poems, plays, and scholarly studies, many of which are published on my personal website (madligaya.com). I write in both English and my native language, Filipino. Several of my research studies have been presented at international conferences and published in internationally indexed journals. My published papers can be accessed through my ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4477-3772. Outside of teaching and writing, I enjoy reading books related to my interests, creating content for my websites and social media accounts, and engaging in self-improvement activities. The following is a link to my complete curriculum vitae: https://madligaya.com/__welcome/my-curriculum-vitae/ TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Posted on July 30, 2026, in Better Self...Better Life, Competence Framework, Fulfillment, General, Habit Scheme, Holistic Self-improvement, Personal Growth and Development, Self-Discipline, Self-Improvement, Value System and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.

  1. Indeed, there are way too many currents within self-help, from the goal oriented Tony Robbins’ stuff to the sobrang airy fairy New Agey gurus. There is one reality and the ultimate goal of self improvement is to become whole ourselves not fragmented

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  2. What I really intend to do through my book is to make those who embrace self-improvement to realize that in order for the process (of self-improvement) to become more meaningful, they need to look into the different components of personal growth and development. I grouped them into what I explained in my proposed self-improvement paradigm as value system, competence framework, and habit scheme.

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