Lots of good advice was already given here, I'll just add my two cents. > You may say that I'm not speaking rationally, but reality can validate every one of m

Lots of good advice was already given here, I'll just add my two cents. > You may say that I'm not speaking rationally, but reality can validate every one of my worries and regrets. If you're thinking rationally, then you should realize that regrets are useless. Only the lesson that you can learn from the regret is valuable. All this energy that you are wasting on regretting something is energy that could have been poured into honing a craft. The most important thing perhaps, is to optimize not for the arrival, but for the journey itself. Whatever your goal is, do something little that will bring you closer to it, every day. But this little something, you must enjoy. (Of course, if you feel like you can do more than "little" and still enjoy it, do it !). If you enjoy programming but feel like you don't know a lot about languages or some technology, then get started on that language or that domain you don't know and that scares you (be it C++, Haskell, AI, 3D...). Practice some of it everyday. It works for other domains as well : eating healthier food, exercising and practicing sports, practicing a musical instrument. The 10 year rule is really scary but don't forget that with every year of practice, you'll feel like you've learned a lot. It's not some kind of hard threshold, where you learn with great pain for 10 years and at the end, you get a flash of genius and you instantly become a master. It's progressive, and it compounds. Embrace the mistakes. Mistakes are part of how we, humans, learn. I can definitely relate to your feeling, because I have had a lot of regrets concerning my life choices as well. I realized a few things about it : I would have done some of these mistakes at a later point in my life most probably, and making them earlier taught me a lesson earlier. Some other stupid mistakes were due to character flaws of mine, and eventually I realized that I should strive to change these flaws as well. It's not easy, but I'll give it a try. Anyway, there is no point on dwelling on the past. If you'd like to be at a better place, start moving towards it, it doesn't matter if it's 100km away and your first steps are only 1cm. The steps will be exponentially longer with time — and maybe you'll realize your goal is not where you envisioned it at first, but it doesn't matter because it's easy to change your goals once you have gained momentum. As humans, it is also a natural tendancy (and imho a good thing) to always keep your goals challenging. For example, as an amateur guitarist, over the years I have come to discover that there are always more challenging pieces of music to play, and more extremely talented guitarists whose mastery I would yearn for. But I still enjoy playing at my modest level. You are in your early 30's which is still very, very young. (My taekwondo teacher, now a 4th dan black belt, started taekwondo in his late 20's. He is very impressive, and looks 10 year younger than he is.)