Well I use the smoking analogy because I used to smoke and know how hard it was to give up...as for regrets etc yeah I have a few but when it comes to "if I had my time over" scenarios their not worth the paper it's written on. What's done is done...besides nobody lives on the past it cannot sustain you. I am an 11 000 hour pilot and have done and seen more in the last 22 years than most do in a lifetime...but if there is one thing that I value most from aviation it is the self growth that it has given me and knowing myself.
I stopped enjoying flying so had a break for two years and went and did other things...best thing I ever did. My point is you seem to be able to make your own way in life and that is what is important. I don't agree with the many comments on pprune about how you must sacrifice everything as if it's the only way to prove yourself in aviation (a kind of sad ritual)...in actual fact I think it is that very kind of thinking that haunts the profession and has done since it began...just read "fate is the hunter"
It's not all bad of course I enjoy what I do...but it seems to me that you end up where your supposed to.