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#58) Win/Win Character Traits

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Do you have what it takes to win? And to help others to win as well? We will find out today, here on "Always Be Better." [opening sequence] Hello, I'm Mel Windham, and today we will continue the 7 Habits discussion. In an earlier video, I described the different paradigms for making deals with others. We discussed Win/Lose, Lose/Win, Lose/Lose, Win, and Win/Win. It can be argued that there is a time and a place for each of these paradigms, but overall it seems that Win/Win benefits the most parties. We also discussed that today we are largely surrounded by a Win/Lose attitude nearly everywhere we go. But it doesn't have to be that way. Win/Lose isn't very helpful, as it does nothing more than shifting good fortune away from some people and toward others. If we could little by little shift this worldwide paradigm from Win/Lose to Win/Win, we could actually start raising everybody up. Rising water lifts all boats. But what would this take? It requires building up c...
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#57) Political Parties Showcase

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Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham. Today we will return to the Political Track, and I'd like to explore the different political parties that exist in the United States. First off, why do we have political parties in the first place? This is a question that will come up several times in this and other videos in the near future. I think that in a democratic society, such parties might be inevitable. People who seem to share the same political views will tend to find each other and join forces, ... and a party is born. In autocratic societies, there tend to be zero or one state party in which everyone must be a member. In the United States, we currently have two major parties and scores of other smaller parties. Many experts think that our system of voting, as dictated by the US Constitution, almost guarantees a two-party system. Because of a theory called Duverger's Law, the math strongly pushes us to two parties. And I'm sure you've...
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#56) The Impostor Syndrome

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Do you ever feel stuck and frustrated? Does it feel like nothing you're doing is working? Perhaps you might be suffering from something called the Impostor Syndrome. [Open splash scene and music.] Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better." I'm Mel Windham, and today we're going to explore the Impostor Syndrome. This is something I'm currently struggling with, and something I suspect affects most people to some degree. First off, what is it? In a nutshell, it's when we're really good at something, but for some reason we think we're terrible at it. We feel that if we can see our own shortcomings, then others will realize that we're fake, or ... an impostor. And hence the name ... Impostor Syndrome. Since this is a rather new idea, first appearing in 1978, nobody really understands it, but it's certainly fun to talk about. What I'll try to do is share my own experiences, and perhaps realization will help you know what you might be abl...
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Extra: An Urgent Call to Conservatives

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  Hello, this is Mel Windham from the "Always Be Better" series, and today I'm doing a cross post with the Econo-Mel. This is a special edition video -- not part of the usual cycle, but never fear; "Always Be Better" will be back in a couple of weeks. Today I'd like to talk to my conservative friends, though all of you are free to listen in. I'm going to start back in high school. Around 1986 ... Milton High School, Building 5, an old dilapidated asbestos-ridden building. Social Studies class. We had many discussions, a few films, and we read Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm . We learned about racism, the rise of Hitler, and other terrible events. And we students talked amongst ourselves, with a little help from the teacher. We wondered: in each of these terrible events, why couldn't people see what was really going on? Why did they allow these bad things to happen? It was very easy for us to agree and resolve that: "We're never going to l...
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#55) My Political History

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  Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham. As I've mentioned before, I have chosen to expedite the Political Track this year, and as part of this effort, it would probably be good for me to introduce myself, and explain where I am, personally, in the world of politics. This will be the first time I will make certain political statements in which many of you will disagree. But today's goal isn't so much about discussing these points and to convert anyone, but rather I'm simply telling my own story. My goal is that through watching this "testimony," you will get a much clearer picture of who I am, what my biases and leanings are, and why I'm doing this video series. But first, are you frustrated with today's antagonistic political environment? Where can we today to find HOPE? I would like to introduce you to my second album, HOPE , produced by Melkim Publishing. [music starts] You can listen to eleven peaceful, relaxing ...
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#54) Good and Bad Brainwashing

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Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham. Today we're going to explore more of the world of brainwashing. Four years ago, I produced three introductory videos on this topic. If you haven't already seen these videos, I highly recommend them, as watching these three videos alone could change your life, and help alert you to what's going on around us. Though, I'm hoping this video will do fine as a standalone, so if you like, keep watching, and then you can go back and watch these other three videos later.  As a quick summary, the first video talks about our autopilot -- how we can train the brain to remember macros, so we can do multiple things at the same time. In the second video, I explain how we can train, trust, and retrain our autopilots, and increase our own effectiveness. In the third video, I talk about how we can corrupt other people's autopilots using the very same techniques, only in this case, it's called brainwashin...
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#53) Social Cycle Theory

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Hello and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham. Today we return back to politics and the last of my three videos featuring the "Power of You." Today we're going to explore something called Social Cycle Theory. As we look back on history, you may see certain patterns. Each country has good times and bad times. Times when freedoms are great, and other times when autocrats are in control. Prosperous times and destructive times. And throughout the millennia, different philosophers and social scientists have tried to capture these patterns in a type of formula. And as you may guess, these formulae come in many different varieties, each with their own nuances and differences. But overall, each of these theories have in common the idea of some kind of cycle.  You can even see this idea in one of the oldest books -- the Bible. Here, we can see such a cycle in the account of the Jewish people after Moses led them to the Promised Land. The people enjoyed ...
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