This post is an explanation of how my personal motivation works, and I am curious how others here relate to it, and if it is a common thing with ADHD.
For starters, I have inattentive-type ADHD, have been diagnosed and on various medications for ~5 years, and am roughly college age for context. I am very highly motivated by other people, basically anything where people are depending on my for something, or will directly help/harm someone depending on my actions. Of course I still have executive dysfunction struggles regardless, but that external motivation helps immensely.
In school this manifested as struggling a lot with homework (often not doing it), but doing very well in-class and with group projects. In my limited work and internship experiences, somewhat predicably, I have done very well as directly working hands-on with coworkers highly motivates me. Unfortunately, personal life progression things like actually getting a job and finding and applying for further education is the exact opposite, and is a struggle. There are of course plenty more examples, but I think that gives the gist of my experience.
That actually sounds very much like my own motivation structure, and I had a very similar story of how school went for me. Add to that phenomena like me being able to actually care for myself and rapidly improving in just everyday tasks while I was in a relationship vs. now, where I can't bring myself to get motivated to do basic self-care any more.