Better

Unless a person happens to live under a rock, most employees at some point, will find themselves standing at the fork of a road and faced with the decision - to stay where they are, or to take that better job offer.

In our part of the world, it isn't usually just about higher versus lower pay. Often, it would also be about staying with loved ones, or parting with them to work in some other city or country. That is where family and even marital pressures add to the complicated mix.

Ultimately, there would be an accounting of economic gains versus social costs, but this is altogether an entirely separate discussion.

I have always found the phrase "no regrets" inconsistent with reality. I do not believe that any life lived to the fullest had been lived without regrets. Everyone makes mistakes, even those who have always had it good. The same can be said about career choices. We won't know if we have made the right choices, until we actually do. Either way we go, any direction we take, there will always be regrets, in one shape or the other.

What seems clear nowadays is that it should never be about having zero regrets or the fewest regrets today. But rather, that it should always be about how many times, in the days that follow, that we actually try to make things better.  And "better" usually will not be about staying or leaving, nor will it be about more money or less. These old rules do not always work; and will very unlikely work as well as they used to.

"Better", typically, will involve constantly challenging our own boundaries just enough, that we could catch a glimpse of that far-superior version of ourselves.  We could then decide from that point onwards, whether we stay put, or move forward.   

Looking back only frequently implies that we may have already overshot our original target.