But let's say in a given condition, you are doing your best. You can't really compare to what you were doing before either, right? Although, I totally understand why one could feel like crap when comparing to themselves or others, there are other factors that also needs consideration.
Like I used to be a software developer, and as I grew in my career I did less and less coding with time. Am I a less proficient developer today? 100%.
There was a lapse of time where my esteem was lower because of that, until I realized I was better at unblocking people, raising the skill level around me and making the team more efficient by doing that.
But, at any single point in time, we are doing the only thing we can, so that has to be our best at that moment :)
Just imagine if you had to go back and start from the bottom again. Could you?
And as you said after, as your role developed, so did your skills. The coding challenges turned into people leader challenges.
The question is not if I could or not. Like... I feel this is more about resiliency than anything. I think I would definitely find it very hard.
But that's for everything I think. Redoing stuff in general is not something I like in general. I used to work in a summer job and I was doing the same movement and I was so depressed after each shift.
Imagine there was people working there for like 40 years. Doing this. over. and. over. ugh!