Whenever I get on a train is a magical journey. A panic attack comes my way as soon as the train leaves the station. It’s like I have left all my positive thoughts forgotten at the station.

By the way, it’s not that I’m paranoid – I just have the habit to get on trains in places where I don’t speak the language. So, for a moment, I feel very uncertain about my destination.

Insecurity is my main weakness, I think. That’s why my positive thoughts leave me every now and then. Well, that’s what I thought until I dug deeper in my head (yes, pretty scary) and analyzed the word “insecurity”.

In- is a prefix that means “without” and “security”, well that’s self-explanatory. So I am (was) lacking confidence – pretty obvious, huh?

Well, here’s the discovery: all my positive thoughts left me because I was uncertain of what is going to happen, even though I had the destination written in my train ticket, ergo I felt powerless in influencing the outcome, so whenever I lose control my positive thoughts are lost too, ergo positivity goes when uncertainty appears.

It was time to face her, uncertainty. And I did! It was a tough battle but I managed, and even got my positive thoughts back, because I learnt that it will always be there.

Actually, there’s little that we can be certain about, since most things are out of our hands. So certainty in its way is just an illusion.

How to remain positive even so?

…you might ask. Well, certainty is an illusion and in there lays the magic. When things are uncertain, anything can happen, right? So a world of options, possibilities and opportunities opens up for you.

Ah, the excitement comes when you realize that you can actually seize those opportunities.  In the end, uncertainty actually gives more than it takes .

Remaining positive through uncertainty CAN be done and actually it’s the natural way to do it.

Learn more about doing it yourself by going to aiesec.org.