What's your punchline?

I was invited to a friend's church tonight for a somewhat atypical sermon. The sermon was not led by a pastor, but rather, a comedian, Michael Junior. While he did an amazing job tying comedy in with Christian beliefs, I am not going to discuss that in this blog. What I WILL discuss is the theme from his sermon. 

Michael Junior discussed the format of a joke- the setup and the punchline. The set up is using your strengths, talents, and resources to ensure that the audience is following along with your "story". Essentially, the setup is what you have. The punchline is when you slightly alter what the audience thinks is about to happen, or expects. Essentially, the punchline is what you do, which grabs people's attention. This results in revelation and joy. A good comedian takes the strengths they have and USES them with their audience to create happier people. 

The setup in "real life"- First, we need to know what strengths we have to give to the world. Many of us are fortunate enough to know what strengths we have, usually by proxi of a mentor or inspirational person in our lives. If you haven't reflected upon what strengths or talents you have to give to the world, close your eyes, think of a person that made you feel special or believed in you, and think, why did they believe in me? What did they see in me that I did not believe in myself? That helps you find your "setup". 

The punchline in "real life"- Unfortunately, many of us stop at the setup. Your talents and strengths mean nothing unless you use them to serve the common good. Ask yourself, how can I use my "setup" to impact other lives? Michael made a paradigm shift during his career as a comedian- Instead of thinking, "How can I GET people to laugh?", he started asking himself, " How can I GIVE them the opportunity to laugh?"  Many of us know our strengths and talents, but we use them to get things. Instead, how can we use our talents and strengths to give to others, resulting in revelation and joy? 

This is one of the major paradigm shifts of The Leader in Me philosophy- I have strengths and talents and can use them to be a "transfer person", building capacity in others. WOW. Imagine if we all made it a goal to use our talents to impact others' lives... How different would this world be? The truth is, it would be drastically different. While some people may say that our school is "too small", we know that it only takes one person to make an impact, just like Michael Junior made an impact on me tonight. 

My question to you now is.... what is your setup and how will you play out the 

punchline?