You can think of it as a pay cut or, assuming your getting valuable skills in the new job, you could treat it as getting paid to go to school i.e. making an investment in your career. LIFE IS EXTREMELY BRIEF. It really is worth the effort to find a job you like.

Another way to make that sort of money is contracting. You get to pick your own projects and if the project isn't working out for you, you know it won't last long before you're doing something new someplace else. In my experience, the biggest problem was lack of exposure to colleagues I could learn from. I was usually hired because they didn't have my expertise in-house and I did most of my work from home.