I always start with the end goal in mind. For my kids, the goal was a happy, productive, fulfilling adult life. HS and college are both opportunities for learning and necessary steppingstones along the path to the goal. (So, incidentally, is grad school).
One kid had serious LDs (dyslexia that caused fatigue and then physical pain), speech delays, and who knows what else as well as physical issues that we discovered were sleep apnea. But these were balanced off against pretty extraordinary gifts. [He was interested in behavioral econ in college and I persuaded him to take a math course every semester so he also was a math major and later told me that he didn’t have to even read the math textbooks at all until his 8th or 9th math course in college and got A’s or A+s every semester and frequently did not have to attend class].
Given the goal, I hoped that ShawSon would go to a college where a) there would be other very bright kids; b) the professors would quickly grasp how bright he was; and probably most important c) the distribution requirements would be non-existent or minimal. To get in to such a school, in my judgment, he would have to show no weaknesses and one or two serious strengths. So, we decided he would not try a foreign language (consistent with all of his neuropsych testing). At the HS’s suggestion, we partially homeschooled him so he could work on improving writing and go faster in math. He took social science courses that were challenging, because they interested him, but we kept him out of courses that would be taxing with no real gain. He did art classes as well.
So, we didn’t always push him in every course, but enabled him to show his strengths. He got into several of the colleges that I thought would work for him (NESCAC, Ivy, other), went to one with minimal distribution requirements, did extremely well . He was tired throughout but pushed through. He has been very successful post-college by playing to his strengths. In his case, I thought a prestigious school would be desirable for him given his goals and drive but did not think it would be nearly as important for my daughter (who was very bright and less driven) to get to the happy, productive, fulfilling adult life.
I think @blossom’s advice is good. Try to figure out where the apparent lack of drive comes from. ShawSon would not push his English essays as much as he could because a) they tired him out; and b) he said, like your son, “Dad, I’m going to get an A on them anyway so what’s the point.” I had always told him he needed to get rid of fluff words, do a better job on transitions, etc. But, no uptake. However, when he decided to compete in Moot Court and was given only a limited time to speak (which was even more limited because of his speech delay) did he focus on making every word count and became a good writer (with my help). I did insist that he write down intermediate steps in math in middle school.
In short, his HS schedule was chosen strategically to show no weaknesses and one or two strengths, his college was chosen strategically to play to his strengths and he has done so ever since with great success. I hope this is helpful. Happy to give more detail in DM if desired.