What if I realized too late what matters to me at work?

You worked out what really matters to you later than you wish you had, and now you are rearranging things in its light. There can be a sting in that, a sense of years spent pointed the wrong way. But notice, you did realize it. Many people never do. The temptation is to grieve the time before the realization, as if it was all wasted. It was not. Often it is exactly those years, the ones that felt off, that teach you what matters by showing you what does not. You did not arrive late by accident. You arrived by learning. So put your attention where it can actually work, which is forward, not back. Ask what one change would bring your days more in line with what you now know matters, and make it. You cannot get the earlier years back. You can make sure the ones ahead are aimed true. That is not too late. That is right on time.