Some of the most important questions in life may not have an answer, and over time, we learn to carry that truth with us.
A friend recently asked me how he would know if he was on the right path, a difficult question. Before I could respond, I realized something uncomfortable: I didn’t have an answer. Not because I haven’t lived or thought deeply, but because the question itself doesn’t come with a finish line. There’s no bell that rings, no sign that lights up saying, “Correct! You’ve chosen well.”
Most of us grew up believing that every question has an answer if you work hard enough or think long enough. It’s comforting. Answers feel like solid ground. But real life is messier, and some questions don’t resolve; they unfold, evolve, and circle back just when you think you’ve figured them out.
Early in my career, I chased clarity as if it were oxygen. I remember staring at a contract for a partnership that could either accelerate everything or derail it. I wanted someone, anyone, to tell me the right move. I built spreadsheets, sought advice, and lost sleep trying to wring certainty out of a situation that simply didn’t offer any. Eventually, I signed, not because I’d found “the answer,” but because I finally accepted that the uncertainty wasn’t going away.
The partnership worked. But the real lesson was the realization that living with the question forced me to understand what I truly valued. The question shaped me more than any answer could have.
Becoming comfortable with unanswerable questions isn’t the same as giving up or drifting. Accepting that clarity doesn’t always arrive on demand and sometimes letting certain questions walk with you instead of demanding they be resolved is what you need to do. It’s the difference between obsessing over the destination and actually showing up for the journey.
Think about the questions we all carry: What is my purpose? Am I enough? What if I’m wrong about everything? None of them has clean, permanent answers. And yet we move forward. Maybe the point isn’t to solve them, but rather it’s who we become while living inside the question.
“Not knowing is not a failure. It’s the first step toward understanding.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés
This week, try this: pick one question that’s been nagging at you. Instead of forcing an answer, write down what it’s teaching you just by existing. What has the uncertainty revealed? What have you clarified by sitting in the discomfort?
You might find that the ambiguity you’ve been resisting is exactly where the insight has been hiding.
What’s a question you’ve been learning to live with? I’d love to hear your story.
Have a great weekend.
-Vijay