Looking back on their careers, it's a common regret of the highly successful that they hadn't taken a break more often to focus on the relationships that really matter, theHuffington Post reports.

So if you need some motivation to step away from your computer screen for a family dinner tonight, heed the advice of these bright sparks.

BARACK OBAMA

In an essay titled Being the Father I Never Had, the US president wrote about wanting to be the best possible parent he could be for his two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

"When Malia and Sasha were younger, work kept me away from home more than it should have," Obama wrote in People magazine. "At times, the burden of raising our two daughters has fallen too heavily on Michelle. During the campaign, not a day went by that I didn't wish I could spend more time with the family I love more than anything else in the world."

PAUL MCCARTNEY

A fan once asked the Beatle what he'd do if he had a time machine. McCartney said he would go back in time and spend more time with his mother, who died of embolism when Paul was 14.

His love for his mother, and eventually letting go of his pain after losing her, inspired one of the band's greatest song, Let It Be.

"At night when she came home, she would cook, so we didn't have a lot of time with each other. But she was just a very comforting presence in my life," he said.

"And when she died, one of the difficulties I had, as the years went by, was that I couldn't recall her face so easily. That's how it is for everyone, I think.

"As each day goes by, you just can't bring their face into your mind, you have to use photographs and reminders like that. So in this dream 12 years later, my mother appeared, and there was her face, completely clear, particularly her eyes, and she said to me very gently, very reassuringly: 'Let it be'."

MARTHA STEWART

The 71-year-old's one regret, looking back at her life and career? "That I haven't had more children," she said in a New You magazine profile. "But my daughter has two babies now, so the family is growing."

AUNG SAN SUU KYI

The Burmese politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner has achieved incredible feats in her career but lives with painful regrets in her personal life.

She has spent the past two decades under house arrest in Rangoon, 3200km away from her family in Oxford, England.

Suu Kyi had the chance to reunite with her family in England but knew it would come at the expense of ever leading her people, so she stayed.

"I would like to have been together with my family. I would like to have seen my sons growing up. But I don't have doubts about the fact that I had to choose to stay with my people here."

USHER

The money Usher's earnt during his career as a singer and producer was no good to him when his father was dying. And now the successful music man regrets not slowing down to spend time with his sick dad before it was too late.

"Instead of being there when he was sick, I was working," the R & B star told Contact Music. "There was no amount of money that could have fixed my father's health, but I could have just spent that time with him."

ERIN CALLAN

The former CFO of the global financial services firm Lehman Brothers in the US, which went bust in 2008, Erin Callan recently penned an opinion piece for the New York Times asking Is There Life After Work? At the height of her career, if she wasn't catching up on work, she was catching up on sleep.

"I don't have children, so it might seem that my story lacks relevance to the work-life balance debate," Ms Callan wrote. "Like everyone, though, I did have relationships - a spouse, friends and family - and none of them got the best version of me. They got what was left over."

Now, Ms Callan says that although she can't make up for lost time, she is learning to find gratitude and appreciate the life she has.