You don’t need an answer to everything right away

Some questions seem to demand an immediate answer.

What should I do next? Was that decision right? Where do I want to be in a few years? And sometimes, quite simply: how is all of this supposed to continue?

I know the urge to find an answer as quickly as possible. An open question can feel like something that is still waiting to be completed.

But perhaps it is not.

Not every question is a task

We are used to looking for solutions. With technical problems that is useful. If something does not work, we check what is wrong and try to fix it.

Life does not always work that way.

Some things do not become clearer simply because we think about them for longer. Sometimes what is missing is not the right answer, but a little more time, experience or distance.

And that can be difficult when we would really like to know where the journey is going.

An open question is not automatically an unsolved problem.

Perhaps something is allowed to remain unfinished

I do not have to know today exactly where I will be in five years. I can have a direction without knowing every turn along the way.

I also do not have to give other people an immediate answer to every question.

“I don’t know yet” can sound weak. In reality, it can be remarkably honest.

An answer may even change as we change. What feels right today may look different in a year. That does not automatically mean we were wrong before.

What if we carry the question with us?

Instead of forcing an answer, we could carry a question with us for a while.

On a walk. On a journey. In a conversation. Or simply through an ordinary Tuesday.

Perhaps we notice something along the way that we would never have found while sitting at a desk.

And perhaps the question stays open for longer.

That is allowed too.

Which question might you not need to answer just yet?

You can send it to me if you like. Not because I know the answer. Sometimes sharing a good question may already be interesting enough.

Marco, der uNi