Do you notice that with the "simple things", there is no goal attached to them apart from enjoying yourself? I would even say this "inner work" can be grouped together with the things that make self feel better as an activity with a goal. It's something you do because you're trying to change something. If you still enjoy walking, petting your cat, hiking, etc., I wouldn't say you suffer from a lack of motivation at all. I've also stopped doing many "productive" things I used to do, and fill my time up with more things that I enjoy. I would say much of your goal-oriented fear-based motivation has simply dropped. There's still one huge goal-oriented fear-based activity which is this inner work though, hahah.
I wouldn't say the simple things don't have any goal attached to them. The goal of walking my dog is prompted by believing a story about his quality of life being partly determined by him being able to go on walks or not. This story is attached to another story about being responsible for him that triggers sensations that are interpreted as unpleasant (guilt), so the goal is ultimately to relieve this guilt. Similar processes can be said with petting my cat and hiking. I guess we could call that motivation though.
But what I find interesting about what you are pointing out, is that things that there is no motivation for anymore are those things that I did to be perceived in a way by "others".
Ironically, I started out thinking that people who weren't working hard to achieve things were wasting their lives by focusing on enjoyment, rather than the REAL important thing, progress. Then I got into spirituality, and I thought successful businessmen and politicians were wasting their lives by focusing on progress, rather than the REAL important thing, ending suffering. But now, I don't feel like anyone is wasting anything anymore. Wasting what? This is it. What could be more or less important than whatever you're doing right now?
I can totally relate to this, and I get into this perspective, but it's not the norm, the norm is the perspective of ending suffering. I need a reminder to get me into the perspective that this is it. There is nothing else.
Take my words with a grain of salt. I think this may be connected to the sense of purpose. Why do you do the things you do? Do you always make your decisions trying to get the most/best out of everything you can? Do you regret choices, thinking about how you could have done something different and things would have turned out better? This whole decision-making mechanism and "getting the best you can" thing is quite tied in to the sense of self.
You are definitely on to something. There is a mechanism that seems to need a purpose in order to be motivated to do stuff. If there is no seeming purpose, there is a subtle or not-so-subtle sensation labeled resistance. This is probably why motivation for a lot of things have dropped, because I no longer see it's purpose.
There is a lot less regretting, but it does happen from time to time, followed by a noticing and then dropping it.
