I think it's my age, coupled with realisation I'm not getting any younger, but I've been wondering what things I could have done differently at various stages in my life.

For example. I could have gone to sixth form, and then maybe art college.

I could have followed my dream and worked harder to get into local radio.

I could have tried harder to get proper jobs that paid a decent wage.

I could have stuck it out in my last proper job, rather than trying to make a go of it on my own.

I'm not entirely unhappy with my life, if I'm honest. It's just right now, it could be a lot better, and I've lost the thread a bit. I'm sure something sensible will happen sooner or later, but I am still wondering whether it would have turned out differently if I'd taken a different path to the one that led me here.

What about you?

I did and I've still had a serious drop-off in work over the past year....so many people who are creative freelancers are having a rough time these days. I going to have to look at side-stepping into a related field....if anybody is hiring/commissioning these days! If not I'll have to think about doing something entirely different.



Ditto. I wonder what would have happened if I'd, say, gone into a design company in London rather than isolate myself as a freelancer working from home.

I hate gaps where I've got little or no work....too much time to think about where things have gone awry.

Heh, yeah.

My current situation at the Bat Cave is shared by my boss. He's realised that the old business model the company had is dead. That's why we're looking at moving sideways a notch and trying to get Focal Point running. We're both more interested in photography and stuff than in updating and running 250 business cards for the odd client.

If it takes off, my enthusiasm may revive. I'm also looking at alternatives employment outside my specialist field. It's time for a change to refresh my head.

Not got ill 10-12 years ago. I had a double dose of something called post viral syndrome, upgraded to chronic fatigue syndrome and lumped in with ME. Since then, I have felt less mentally robust and less able to make the Big Decisions. I have been fairly lucky as things have come my way, but I have major nagging doubts about my abilities which hamper my progress at times (this has roots at school where I was told I was no good at art - that killed any joy I had at the time). I was very different pre the PVS - I was far more capable to just get on with things, and I had by the time I got the courage to go to art school interviews put the nagging doubts in a cage in the dark somewhere. The PVS kind of let them out to rampage. I’ve never been able to contain them effectively since.

Prior to that, I think things went pretty well. I left school without the qualifications I needed for uni at the time, got a job and stuck it out for 4 years, and then went back to college and uni and got a degree. Things started to fall apart after that. I’ve had jobs, but I kind of feel at times that what I am doing now is not what I thought I’d be doing when I left uni. Not all these things are good or enjoyable.

I guess the trick is to try to figure out what it is I want to do, and start plotting and scheming. I have a camera or two. I really should start using them more effectively.

There are a great many things I now regret not doing back when I could have done them, but all the experiences I had back then are what make me the person I am now.
I'm certainly not happy at the moment, but I like to think I'm a good person, and I am happy with that.
I carry around with me a whole heck-of-a-lot of regrets but as much as I would like to change stuff, I really wouldn't.

I can say I'd like to have done this, that or the other, but if that would change the person that's sat here now typing this, then I'd really not bother.

Mark

Oh I dunno. I try not to spend too long on the what ifs. It's never healthy. We are where we are for a reason, so let's make the most of it and get on to somewhere else.

If I was to revisit anything, I'd have pushed Alwin Küchler for the one on one lighting classes he offered me.
Maybe I'd have gone to Holland to follow the girl of my dreams.
Maybe I should have taken a nice sensible job with a steady income in a fluorescent lit office somewhere, sat in front of a Dell, and bought my shirts in packs of three from M&S.

I can't think back on any point in my past where things would have worked out differently career wise. If I knew what I should have done differently, I'd have done it, and I'm satisfied that every choice I've made so far has been made to the best of abilities, even if the ultimate outcome of being 32, single, and living in your parents basement isn't the most desirable!

To be honest I would be as bad as I was before, but I would not have turned down some of the women who asked me out. I might have even married one of the women who asked me to marry them.

Overall the only thing that I would do is keep better contact with everyone.

Not a thing.

I have no way of knowing how my life would be now, if I had/hadn't done things in the past so I wouldn't go back and change anything. I made the choices I made for reasons that were relevant at the time and obviously I am where I'm supposed to be.

Without being flippant about it, I was taught to make the best choice for me, using the information available at the time. With no way to tell if the decision was right or just a version of right, you do the best you can with what you've got. If it turns out to make me miserable or make my life worse, then I make another choice to either change things back or take another step forward. I'm in the web of my life, and perhaps if I'd made different choices I would now be happier/slimmer/richer, but there's no guarantee. I could just as easily have made things much worse.

Without the things I've seen/done/chosen I wouldn't be me, I'd be someone else and who knows what kind of life she'd be leading?

International assassin?


I am like many others and I am afflicted by perfect 20/20 hindsight just as its too late to change the decision.
The only thing I woould change is all those wrong numbers on the lottery ticket I bought

I wouldn't have let my dad get into my head all these years ago as a kid if I'd known any different then, but hindsight's wonderful... He's the main source of any stress I feel now as a result, and the sooner I have my own place the better

Before I go any further I should say my family are pretty much arrogant and/or dumb, so I'd like to add that I really should have smacked one of my sisters round the head a few times when we were younger, just to avoid her being the annoying wee bitch she is to me now

You're probably right. I think it's part of the human condition, though.

I don't actually regret the decisions I made when I made them - and there have been some stinkers in my time - but I do think it's good to be able to review things occasionally and see if there's anything you can learn anew.

I should have been more decisive as a youngster. It's one of my worst flaws, I think.

+1 I often think I should have gone with the flow a bit less. Still I'm happy enough and don't have any regrets.

That's not to say I wouldn't do it all differently next time though.

Are you sure?

I can't help but feel that I am at one of those points in life. I've basically just dropped out of uni and really need to get some sort of plan / scheme in place. Right now I have a temping job, so I have a little time, but I don't want to find myself still doing admin in even 6 months time. The only possible excuse would be as a simple money earner because I was pursuing something hobby related (specifically Magic the Gathering).

The problem is that I really don't have any idea what I want to do...

I'm sure I could have done lots of things better or differently but like Amy said I wouldn't be the person I am now.

I guess my main regret is my Mother putting the fear of god in to me about having kids so I left it until I thought I would be financially secure enough to raise them but it never happened. But looking how kids are turning out these days with knife crime and all the rest I'm not so sure it's a bad thing. The population of the world will carry on quite happily without me reproducing and there are plenty of other things that can fulfill you