By Spence Finlayson

Life is filled with many surprises, twists and turns. As an international motivational speaker and talk show host, I am often invited to various functions and events. Sometimes, I don't feel like going to some events and invariably when I dress up and show up something positive happens. As I look back very recently, two specific functions that I was invited to serve as the master of ceremonies and I received some spin off business for my training institute, The Phoenix Institute For Positive Development and Empowerment . So no matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up and never give up.

Master Motivator Spence Finlayson, Bahamian born, international motivational speaker, corporate trainer and author, is the founder, president and CEO of The Phoenix Institute, a human resources development firm based in The Bahamas

You see feelings are not facts. Feelings are temporary. They change from moment to moment, from day to day. We all have days when life appears to be overwhelming. Some days we would rather stay under the blankets and not face life.

We could choose to hibernate or we could get dress up, show up and never give up. Remember, it's not over until you win. One of the biggest fears people have in their lives is failure. They are afraid they won't succeed if they try something new; fear that they might never 'make it' doing what they are passionate about or fear that keeps them from following their heart.

Life is definitely too short to let fear make important decisions for you. Motivational coach Anthony Robbins said, "I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understanding s that have created the new level of living I know enjoy."

Steve Jobs said, "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choice in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

I firmly believe that there is something magical that happens when you get dressed up and show up for life. Life pays in exact wages, what you withhold from life, life withholds from you. Some Sunday mornings I really don't feel like going to church for whatever reason but when I do get dressed up in one of my nice tailor-made suits and show up, something good always happens. Yes, you know what you want to do. You certainly know what you need to be doing. But you are doing something else as a diversion. Yes, when we procrastinate, it robs us.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, "It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." Edward Young said, "Procrastination is the thief of time: Year after it steals, till all are fled and to the mercies of a moment leaves the vast concerns of an eternal scene."

Yes, friends, 90 percent of success is showing up, so said Woody Allen. This brief article that follows is proof of this: "The Class That Built Apps and Fortunes"... All right, class, here's your homework assignment: Devise an App, Get People To Use it. This was the task for some Stanford University students in the fall of 2007, in what became known as the Facebook Class. No one expected what happened next.

The students ended up getting millions of users for free apps that they designed to run on Facebook and as advertising rolled in some of those students started making far more money than their professors.

Almost overnight, the Facebook Class fired up the careers and fortunes of more than two dozen students and teachers here. It also helped to pioneer a new model of entrepreneurship that has up turned the tech establishments: The lean start up.

The important part is that none of those students particularly wanted to build that App. It was simply something they were told to do.

The challenge in life is that no one tells us to do things that we'll own. Sure, at work managers tell us what to do but the company owns the result of the work and all potential windfalls. So we can deduce from this article that just by doing something and shipping it to the world, we might create an unexpected success.

In my own special way, I have personally discovered that when I actually dress up in my suit with matching neck tie and pocket piece, I feel on top of the world, extremely confident. Clothes it appears make the man perceive the world differently. A new study looks specifically at how formal attire changes people's thought processes.

"Putting on formal clothes makes us feel powerful and that changes the basic way we see the world," says Abraham Rutchick, an author of the study and a professor of psychology at California State University, Northridge.

Rutchick and his co-authors found that wearing clothing that's more formal than usual makes people think more broadly and holistically, rather than narrowly and about fine-grained details.

And so I say get up: face the day ahead on standing firmly, dress up: put your clothes on from head to toes, it triggers hope and finally show up: 90 percent of life is showing up. Show up each day with lots of optimism and in the fullness of time you will become victories in the Olympics of life with a gold medal.