Maybe my perspective is skewed because I didn't follow my passion, but my reward comes at the end of the work day, not during it. When I considered following my passion, I thought how annoying it would be to have to work with/under people who would take the fun out of it. I chose something I was good at that paid well, and left ample time to spend with my spouse and now my children. It's easy to leave work at work because don't care that much about it.
I don't actually have much of a passion or anything I'm really interested in doing in life, so I'm always amazed when people have passions or things they are interested in accomplishing and actually want to get up in the morning.
Work is work and it's generally going to be dull and boring, mostly because you have to spend time doing things you have zero interest in actually doing. But you do it to make money so that you get to eat and not be homeless. Things that are enjoyable tend to not generate revenue.
