Best - deciding to quit drinking so I could grind through and get my engineering degree

Worst - (so many!) Never figuring out how the federal contracting business really works, sticking around multiple poorly performing teams/companies too long as the years went by, not paying someone to get me through the USAJobs process to become a fed when the window was still open, going along with my wife dropping out of full-time work to deal with our special needs kid, not pushing to put my other kid on powerful pharmaceuticals until they landed in residential treatment, getting a dog when we couldn't manage a houseplant, not getting my Mom into hospice and cranking up the morphine five years earlier, being a lousy boyfriend when I was in my 20s, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Echoing college/grad school choice, and marrying DH. Adding career/field choice (this was a risky one), a major cross-country move that fast-tracked my career, and choosing not to have children.

PP for this one and enjoying this thread. I forgot to add my worst, which are 1) spending way too long in my 20s pining over a guy that was clearly not interested, 2) taking the first job offer I got out of grad school because I didn't have the self-confidence to believe I'd get more than one opportunity, 3) buying our first house (which we eventually sold at a loss) because we were so tired of renting that we ignored signs that the market was about to tank.

Best: Being born - I did a great job that day.

Worst: Not getting braces sooner

Best: marrying my husband that I met at college

Worse: Choosing a college that had limited majors.

I find this a bit hard to answer. For example, I chose to stay home with my kid and that went well but, maybe it would have gone equally well if I had gone back to work. Or maybe it would have been even better.

Worst:
-Choosing to move for partners; I wish I had stuck to where I wanted
-Thinking I can fix people, I am attracted to partners who need help with mental illness or addiction. It has bitten me hard.
-Not establishing boundaries at times with toxic people; took me a while to be confident and learn what I need

Best:
-Starting my own business
-Surrounding myself with true friends who show up
-Taking a lot of jobs that challenged me, and keeping good relationships from many colleagues who have been supportive and send me clients

Good
-buying my house when I did
-buying my car/buying DHs current car
-losing 50lbs

Bad
-Buying DHs last car (BMW), tried to bleed us dry
-Not standing up for myself more in my career

Best: marrying DH, taking the chance to live outside the US when DS was a baby, settling where we did

Worst: my first degree choice. Ended up going back after 6 years to do an accelerated BSN program and way happier. Wish I had taken that path at 18. Other worst was not getting help for my anxiety and mild depression decades ago.

Best decision: Partnering up with my DH. He's amazing. Life has been good for over 20 years because of him.

Also good: Law school in New Orleans. Taking a job at DOJ instead of private practice even though it paid a lot less. Studying theater in undergrad. Every trip abroad. Adopting my dogs.

Bad: Not reporting a coworker who sexually harassed me. Never prioritizing exercise. Protecting my abusive stepfather out of fear when someone at school asked me about it.

Best decisions:
- marrying my husband
- keeping my friendships alive/valuing my friends
- having our kids
- my career path

Worst decisions:
- spending money on stuff I shouldn't have

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worst: quitting a job before I had another one lined up. I quit because in order to stay I'd have to commute about an hour each way and didn't want to. I thought it'd be so easy to find another job but it wasn't. I was out of work for two years and burned through all my savings.

Best: learning to be direct (while not being mean) and setting boundaries. Learning to call my mother only at the very end of my lunch hour - otherwise she'd keep me on the phone for ages. But if I said "Ok my lunch hour is over - I have to go back to work now" she somehow understood that and would say goodbye. (She's dead now, so it's a non-issue but this gave me a ton of stress while she was alive.)

+1 Applies to almost anyone you might call.

Eh, there are some people I'm happy to chat with for an hour. This was only a tactic I needed to use with my mother.

Worst: selling my business due to health stresss and putting the bulk of the profit in bitcoin mining.
Best: choosing to be happy with myself regardless of past mistakes.

Marrying my husband was the best. I'm on my third (and final) career. I wish I would have found this earlier in life.