You then have an epiphany where you realise that you can be responsible for your own destiny, follow your dreams and create your own wealth, thus freeing you from the shackles of mediocrity and your "career".
After this epiphany, you start to see the world differently. It's ripe for the taking. You will begin to see opportunities where you saw nothing of consequence. You will begin to see how almost everything can be leveraged in some manner to help you pursue your current goals. Your passions will lead you to do socially ostracising things such as quitting your job to work full time on your own projects for six months before you make a single cent in profit, but you won't care. Your passions and the freedom to pursue those passions are more important than anything now.
This is how it was for me, anyways. I'm about to hit the one year anniversary of jettisoning my programming "career". :)
If you try to hustle through a wall, it feels like you're standing still, but once you try hustling around or over it, things start to move. I'd say identifying your wall is the hard part, but getting around it ain't no picnic either. That being said, nothing compares to running free on the other side.