Hindsight is 10/10. I regret preparing for UPSC and "wasting" my 5 years on it. However those 5 years were not wasted but an investment when I cracked every other exam with ease since the knowledge I gained from UPSC was immense. Today I have a job, family and enough income to forget about those years. Moreover it's something that I love to do, and would not have even crossed my mind had I not prepared for UPSC. So hindsight, yes you regret but it shouldn't be remorse.

As someone who suffered from this until a few years back here are my 2 cents.

1. Thinking retrospectively is easy. After 10yrs in the profession I found myself thinking everyday if I should have rather become a musician (which i wanted to in college). However rn, I don't blame myself as much because at that time I had other priorities as well which required significant financial commitments which was simply not possible going down the music route.

2. Risk vs stability, following dreams like vlogging, art etc. carry significant risk and have a huge luck component in them. There are people who have been doing YouTube for 15yrs and have still not hit a consistent income enough to quit their jobs, on the contrary there are some who go viral overnight. You can do everything right and still be miserable. It all comes down to one's personality type, I was not someone who was comfortable with gambling with my future like this (hence, also didn't go the litigation route), stuck with the monthly paycheck route.

3. Can't help it now; no matter what I feel or regret there is no going back now no matter what. It'll just ruin mental health regretting. After a few years I simply tried to enjoy where I am and made peace with all the decisions I made.

4. People are overly optimistic, No one knows how life would have been if they had gone a different route. There is a huge possibility that I would have been more miserable, broke and unhappy if I had gone the musician route which I always overlooked. People assume that they would have been better off and are rarely realistic.

Is it really that people post 40s, 50s, 60s etc regret their decision of choosing a career in life which they don't like and would want to redo their lives doing something they are passionate about, even if that wouldn't have paid well? Or is it just saying and people eventually start coping with the choices they make and become content with whatever life throws up?

Experienced audience please post your thoughts. New entrants in law please just listen out.