On the other hand that caveman wasn't doing the the same thing at the same pace of work every day of the year, and they had a much clearer idea of why the things they were doing were worth the effort they were putting in...
Imagine not understanding basic things about your environment like: why wife die of sick, why sky open and pour ocean, etc.
Now imagine how terrifying and demotivating that type of thing must have been.
The point is that until very recently no one had the luxury of sitting around and worrying whether they felt "motivated" to do things. They just did them because they didn't have a choice if they wanted to survive.
"OH I feel like shit and don't want to get off my ass today" ok.... it doesn't really matter. Still need wood for heat, need to cook, need to feed my pigs etc.
Yeah you can get away with doing essentially nothing now and still survive but people need to change their mindset and form a habit that doing nothing long term results in a very unhealthy lifestyle. Simplify your day into just doing SOMETHING and remove that anxiety of having too many choices. Pick one and go.
You can find rewarding work.
Seems like a big assumption. I haven't yet, and I keep trying.
I know from experience that I'm happiest doing 2-3 part time jobs. But in order to get things like benefits, job security, a salary over 15/hr, etc. I'm stuck with a single place of full time employment. I try to find jobs that let me do a bunch of different things, but it's not really the same.
Being a generalist sucks.