The short answer
Going through the motions means you're working without a reason you believe in. The work hasn't changed — your connection to it has. Finding even one small piece of your job that links to something you care about can start pulling you back.
You're doing the work, but your heart isn't in it. Research on overwork and burnout points to something real here: when people work long or hard without a sense of meaning, the effort starts to feel like running on a treadmill — movement, but no destination. That emptiness isn't a character flaw. It's a signal. Something that used to connect you to your work has worn thin.
Marcus Aurelius saw this clearly. He wrote that some people work 'willingly, and with a rational apprehension of what they do' — meaning they understand why their work fits into something larger. Others just go through the motions, like people sleepwalking. Both groups are working. But only one of them feels it. You already know which group you're in right now. The good news is that's not permanent — awareness is the first step out of sleepwalking.
This week, pick one task you do at work — just one — and ask yourself: who does this actually help, even a little? A coworker, a customer, someone downstream you never meet. Write it down in one sentence. You're not trying to love your job overnight. You're just looking for one small thread of meaning you can hold onto. That's where reconnection starts.