If you're not happy, and your job feels like a grind... it's probably time to get out. Life's too short to hate what you do for 8 hours a day. You should identify what motivates you, and try to pursue that. For example, I found I was not really motivated by technical challenges anymore. I found I was more interested in the business. I cared about the problem my code solved, why the code was needed, and who it helped. At the time I was a "Lead", but the path I was on only lead to me being pigeoned holed into more "technical" positions. They let me pick how to build it, but I was never exposed to the why we're building it (more than the context required to build it). I found consulting as a way to expose myself more to the business. Fortunately, I had built a great network, and that gave me a start. I've only been doing it for about 8 months, but I'm far happier with this than when I was just another "senior engineer".