The Challenge of Living with Uncertainty

The Two Certainties in Life

There are two certainties in life that we all know. The first is death—it’s the only promise that never gets broken. The second, although less talked about, is just as certain: suffering. Anxiety, discomfort, loneliness, those dark moments that inevitably show up are always with us, no matter what we do.

Negative emotions come on their own

The thing about negative emotions is they require no effort. You don’t have to look for them—they just come. On the other hand, positive feelings seem harder to find. They require work, perseverance, and often, a lot of patience. That’s what makes me think suffering and negative emotions are as guaranteed in life as death itself.

It doesn’t matter how hard you try or how much you avoid them—negativity always shows up. If you do nothing, it’s there. If you do a little, it’s still there. Even when you work yourself to the bone, those dark feelings find a way in. It’s part of life. And maybe the real secret to happiness is learning to manage those feelings, because the only thing I can promise for sure is that they are unavoidable.

Success comes with dark moments

There are many success stories, but all the ones I know have something in common: dark moments. For many people, those dark moments were the push they needed to change. It’s like hitting rock bottom gave them perspective and motivation. People who were stuck, broke, directionless, and then—forced by the situation—they pushed through. And from there, their moment of success came.

My moment of stagnation

Right now, I feel stuck. I feel useless, like a fraud. That feeling has followed me most of the year—ups and downs, but always present. My professional life hasn’t changed much since the start of the year (when I came back to Argentina). And what I want most is for my story to resemble those success stories—for my turning point to finally arrive.

Two options: give up or keep going

One thing’s for sure: things rarely go as planned. And we have two options—sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, or keep pushing and betting on what we want. I always choose the second, and I value that about myself. But I’m at a point where I just want things to finally work out. When I was younger, after high school, whenever something failed, I used to think, “It’s part of life, and I’ll learn from this.” But now, I’m tired of learning this way. I feel closer to giving up than to taking it as a lesson. I’m tired of wanting a life that feels unreachable.

These days, I’m doubting my abilities. Sometimes I think I’m smart, capable—but I have no results to back it up. And I know I recently wrote about valuing actions over results, but I can’t help wanting those results. To me, results are like reviews of a service. How do I trust your service is good? Because others say so. How do I trust myself? Because I did this, that, and the other.

What hurts isn’t giving up—it’s not being able to

What hurts, beyond everything else, is that giving up isn’t even an option for me. It’s not just self-imposed—it feels like an external expectation too. Everyone I hear talk about life, career, or personal growth says the same thing: your 20s are for making mistakes, for getting everything wrong, because you have fewer responsibilities and your biggest asset is time. And while I want to understand that and live peacefully—working with the confidence that things will eventually fall into place—the truth is, I can’t. That peace feels far away.

Maybe, in this moment of uncertainty, the key is to just keep going—even if I’m exhausted. To learn how to manage the negative emotions without giving in. To trust that, someday, all the effort will be worth it. Because in the end, even if things don’t go as planned, what matters most is not letting those dark emotions define who we are.

The phrase I’m trying to internalize

To close, I want to repeat a quote I heard from Santiago Bilinkis:
“Life is about making the right decisions and understanding that, even then, things can go wrong.”
I’m trying to internalize this idea and live by that philosophy—but it’s still really hard. Accepting that you can do everything right and still not get the outcome you hoped for is something I struggle to process. But maybe that is the real challenge: learning to live with uncertainty and keep moving forward.