If we have free will how many of us, given the means, could decide to study hard and become a lawyer or doctor and then follow up that decision with the action required to make it happen? What stops us from completing that goal? Why would we decide to give up and take the job down at the market instead? Did we choose to be where we are in life or did it seemingly just happen? I don't think we have as much free will as we think we do, otherwise we'd all choose to be professionals making the big money. Surely it's not just lack of brainpower that stops us.
Brainpower could be a part of it...Just imagine somebody gave u the brain of a dog. How much could u possibly achieve with it? Not much. Some may lack motivation. Some may lack intellect. Some may be impulsive and quit half way. Then another group of people might decide to follow through with it and that decision is very fortunate which was also formed by the neurons firing off(we have no control over what thoughts we form because we don't control the size and or efficiency of our brain regions. However, it's good that there's only a few doctors and lawyers. This permits balance and for the society to flourish because that way we have a little bit of everything. It's amazing how everything works together like a big machine.
So it's more than free will that determines what we do. Like you said, it's motivation also and we can't will ourselves into having motivation. I have no idea how a person could increase their motivation, if I did I'd be doing something to better myself or others instead of killing time on Grasscity. It seems to be something we're either born with or acquire out of a passion for something or out of fear. I tried going to university twice and failed miserably, it wasn't until I was 25 and freshly discharged from the Army that I saw my future staring me in the face and that scared me enough that suddenly I had plenty of motivation to not only get thru uni but I got thru it with honors. I had a psychic awakening. My family was shocked that I had actually finished something that took longer than two weeks. Maybe I'm getting off topic but this must be related to free will somehow.
I have many beliefs when it comes to this topic but I firmly believe that people just want to feel accepted and feel like a part of something bigger than what they actually are. We are taught to be like this as young children. To achieve more or be better. Am I right on this? Someone is always pushing you to do something. It's all about what we have to do to fit into our society. We are taught that we have to be smart to succeed. We have to be successful in our society to be "somebody". It is what is expected of us. By who I cannot explain...the reason is I don't know. I just know that there are many expectations that we must meet or we are not a viable citizen in this world. I disagree with many things but I still follow this code of ethics because I don't want to be singled-out as weird or not normal. How can I be myself but still be accepted by our society? How can I have free thought and still be bound by our norms? It happens to everyone that lives here. You are expected to do this....you must do that....no escape from it.
Harris says the idea of free will "cannot be mapped on to any conceivable reality" and is incoherent.[57][58]According to Harris, science "reveals you to be a biochemical puppet."[59]People's thoughts and intentions, Harris says, "emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control." Every choice we make is made as a result of preceding causes. These choices we make are determined by those causes, and are therefore not really choices at all. Harris also draws a distinction between conscious and unconscious reactions to the world. Even without free will, consciousness has an important role to play in the choices we make. Harris argues that this realization about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.
I find discussions about free-will to be pretty pointless.. Of course, there's two different types of free-will debates .. one is about the physical realm (whether each and every single atom movement is pre-determined) and the other debate is about neurological free will (whether everything in our brains is pretty much pre-determined by our genes, neurons, brain chemistry, etc.) We can only really control 33% of our behavior, but the rest is pretty much determined by our biology .. e.g. Whether you're bipolar, adhd .. ... gay, straight ... .. feel like your biological gender .... ... etc.