Has anyone deliberately chosen a career that doesn't fit their natural skills?

[Spruced]

Bit of a weird question, but I was wondering if anyone can relate to this.

I'm in my 30s and haven't yet found the right career. I've tried a few different things and have ended up leaving them because of becoming stressed and unhappy. I've always tried to pick roles aligned to my key skills, which are things like being meticulous, being able to identify and suggest solutions to problems, being able to make processes more efficient, and so on.

The thing is, the more I use these skills, the more unhappy I become. I can easily get to a point where I'm constantly checking and rechecking everything because I beat myself up if I find a tiny mistake, like it undermines my whole sense of self. I wake up in the night to make some minor improvement to something that no one else was likely to notice in the first place. I always try to be reliable and efficient, and thus end up being relied on and feeling under a lot of pressure to always be there, know all relevant info by heart, etc. I'm an anxious person by nature, and frequently feel overwhelmed by demands and standards that I largely create for myself.

Onto the actual question - has anyone else found that giving free rein to their inbuilt character traits has made them stressed and unhappy in the workplace? I've taken so many career aptitude tests and get very consistent results, advising me to do the kinds of jobs that would make the best use of my skills. The discourse around career choice seems to have at its core the idea that we should try to find jobs that suit our skills, as though using those skills will make us happy, rather than just good at our jobs. I'm not sure this is necessarily the case.

I'm seriously considering moving fields completely to something practical. I'm not particularly good or terrible at the kinds of practical skills this role entails, and I'm sure I can learn and improve. The administrative elements are less complex than what I'm used to. I just really like the idea of doing work that isn't tied into my perception of my character or abilities (a bit like the skill-related version of not turning your creative hobby into a job in case you come to hate what it becomes). Has anyone done anything similar?

I did! When I was 16 I found myself in the civil service in an office working with numbers. Im not bad with numbers (unlike todays kids I can calculate in my head without a calculator) but I had no affinity for the work. So I applied for a job as a library assistant, saying I wanted to work with "people". Later I found that I bloody HATED working with people. I would have been better staying in the office.

As I qualified I spent 4 years working as a cataloguer in a back office. Its a very exacting job but I loved it. It was one of those jobs where you come in, say good morning, sit down at your desk and get on with it. No Joe public to interrupt you.

Later I changed careers, went to uni as a mature student, and became an academic. Once more a job where you work extensively at home writing and publishing. Loved it. Since retiring I have begun my own company selling online from home. All communication by email. Unless Im expecting someone I dont even answer the door. If I have to go into the garden for anything I wait til its dark so I dont bump into neighbours. They must think Im a bloody vampire.

I should never have chosen a job working with people because I have no affinity to pander to their needs. My talents are for researching, writing and working on complex exacting jobs.

On the subject of being too perfect, I recall watching an elderly craftsman who was restoring a mosque in Morocco. He was working with tiny pieces of differently coloured mosaic fitting them into complex geometric patterns. When I admired the perfection of his skill he told me (through an interpreter) that in each piece he made a tiny deliberate mistake. As a devout Moslem he believed that only Allah was perfect. Therefore seeking to emulate God was a sin for a human being. The chances are that no one was ever going to spot his tiny mistakes. But he knew they were there and still took pride in his work.