I am a lecturer in Biological Sciences at one university, and a Research Scientist at another. I enjoy both jobs a great deal, and the work I do at both jobs feeds into my personal goals of writing a book (books, plural, actually), and continuing my work in photomicrography (five exhibitions and 12 journal/book covers to date).
I enjoy a great deal of independence, and pretty much come and go as I please. I have no boss per se at the lecturer job, and nobody can tell me what to teach or what to do in my own classroom (obviously, illegal things, racist, sexist, homophobic stuff is strictly out, not that I would anyway!). I have a department chair I don't want to piss off, and we get along fairly well. I used to have to meet him once a year for a performance review, but now that he has switched to managine everything by e-mail, I may never have to meet with him ever again. I have co-workers, but very little interaction, gossip, or that type of thing.
My only problem is I hate SoCal, and am trying to get out. Getting a similar job(s) in the Bay Area, Oregon, Washington, Montana (Europe? I can get Irish/EU citizehship fairly easily!) is a priority!
Nevertheless, I don't equate my identity with my paid employment. My webpage does not mention either institution I work at--only my personal projects, etc.
I would like to retire early like all of you, but mainly to avoid traffic and getting up earlier than I'd like. In early retirement, I still plan to do much of what I'm doing now--just more on my own terms.