1) Stick with my current place of employment, which is a large fortune 500 cubical farm, filled with thousands of people who are perfectly willing to trade 30 years of earthly existence for a pension. Low expectations = virtually no motivation or desire to work hard for 80% of my working hours.
I think perhaps you are mistaken about many of your co-workers. A lot of them probably enjoy what they do, as you yourself point out when you mention that they do embedded design work in their free time.
You are probably right. I sit next to a couple guys who are constantly announcing to the world how many days they have until retirement. I think this skews my view. Need to try and focus on the positives rather than the sour apples.
What you really need to do is try to come up with answers to a couple of questions. First, what sorts of things would you be doing if you weren't stuck in that cubicle? Second, is there a way you can make a living doing any of them?
This is a great question. Playing sports, eating healthy and reading health/wellness/financial independence stuff on the internet. I don't really have too many productive hobbies. There is quite a bit of time spent reading about things rather than actually doing them. A major problem of mine is that I don't know what I DO like. I will read read read, and make a judgement or decision based on anonymous internet users' opinions. For example, I have considered pursuing medicine or some health profession many times. Both pre and post-graduation. I always go googling and come up with a bunch of negatives and decide against it. The correct thing to do is to go volunteer or shadow in a clinical environment and see how I enjoy it.
The fact that I don't know what I actually like to DO is a problem. I think I may need to explore this outside of work and really learn more about myself before making any drastic career changes.
Um, have I been posting drunk each night and forgetting about it, or do you just sound exactly like me?
Down to a T, I have the same two problems as you. Good job that pays well that you thought you'd be passionate about but now you feel stuck in? Yep. Excessive habit of reading and overthinking everything and not actually doing anything outside of what I consider "status quo" (eating well, working out, occasional socializing/reading for pleasure)? 100%. Yep, pretty sure you're me.
I can't say I know what I want in life either, other than financial independence, good health, close relationships, and to have had a wealth of experiences. I also have the same issue as you--not totally sure what I'd do with that FI. What I have started to do is the following, which might help:
1. Actually do some of the things I've been researching/planning/thinking about, and do it with less analysis. Last December after realizing I had been reading for over 20 days on what kind of bicycle to buy, I told myself how ridiculous this is and just went out and bought one the next day. It might not be the 100% perfect one for me, but it's a perfectly functional road bike that I could have bought day 1 and been happy with. I also took a 3 week trip to Europe that I had been agonizing for 2 years over. I sent a possible plan to a friend, he agreed and after a couple hours of making tweaks, we bought tickets and just did it.
2. Disabling facebook, cutting down my blog consumption. I'm a minimalist in terms of physical items I own, but when it comes to my digital world, I'm a complete hoarder. I have 50+ self development blogs on my Feedly, I have a favorites list of over 500 things I'll probably never look at again but once I thought were cool, and I am a tab-whore with sometimes 20+ tabs open across 2 browsers. It's ridiculous. I disabled my facebook and twitter and told all my friends I was unplugging. I trimmed my blogroll to 5 development blogs and MMM So now I don't feel like I'm an internet hoarder anymore, and I don't feel bad when I see I have 200+ Feedly articles waiting to be read.
3. Accepting that I don't love my job but seeing it more as a tool to achieve what I want, and using the time I'm not on the clock to progress to something I'd rather do. I work as an IT project manager. I don't love it--but I'm getting better at it and it's making me feel like I enjoy it more. I make a solid salary that will get me to FI in 10 years. I doubt I will use any of my limited coding and database theory to build anything in the near future. That being said, I know what I DON'T want to do anymore, so on the side I am using my weekday time to try out things I do want to do. I used to fool myself about how much time and energy I actually have during the workweek--I used to come home at 6 pm, order food and crash watching TV until 11:30. Now I get home, workout, make food, and work on my catering side-gig for 2-3 hours a night. I use my weekends to catch up on reading that I think will further my side gig, and also I see it as time for my "second job".
I'm going to keep following this thread because I think everyone else is onto something here. I also am going to read "Die Empty" and the new Cal Newport book. I think there is a growing contingent of people like us in the "ADD generation" who are thinkers getting stuck in analysis paralysis, never taking action. That's ultimately what we need to do in life, is take a little more action and feel a little less needy towards the up front analysis. Just do things, and learn from mistakes rather than seeking out every person's opinion on the internet. I am a lot happier taking that approach of just "doing things" (like you referenced in reading about the medical world vs. shadowing someone) rather than reading about it, and I think you would be too.