@vadmom I can tell you what helped to light a fire under one of our kiddos who was not feeling the need to work to his potential early on in High School.
We had him work out two budgets with us based on living expenses. One spreadsheet used an average salary for a fast food manager. The other used the average starting salary for an engineering graduate. (Kid is a math/science type) After listing rent, food, electricity and all the basics, it became clear to our kid that “going the extra mile” was worth it. We told him that he was welcome to choose his own path in life and that many adults live in apartments and don’t take vacations. The one thing we promised him was that he would be out of our home at the conclusion of his education and that his quality of lifestyle was his choice.
Kid got the message and did graduate in the top 10% of his class. Somewhere along the way, he came to enjoy using his brain to be the “expert in the room.” He’s about to graduate from college with a double major in Electrical and Computer Engineering / Computer Science.
The brilliant slackers sometimes need to be shown that the effort is worth it!