The forest and the trees - a better perspective on time

There are many reasons we fail to stick with a plan long enough to achieve meaningful change.  Among these is an unreasonable notion of how much time will be needed.  To flesh this idea out I thought I would provide a couple of examples: power and maximal strength vs efficiency.  Efficiency, energy spend to complete a task (e.g. moving from point A to B) has been a topic in several recent posts.  Efficiency is the slowest product of any athletic and sporting program.  It is a long-term training target.  By comparison, power (high rate of force production) and maximal strength are short term products.  They rise more-or-less immediately and will continue to grow in a predictable fashion though the rate of improvement slows as skill grows.  They are also among the first capacities to ebb with rest, whereas efficiency remains high after months of rest or detraining.  
Which is the more important training target?  The answer is efficiency.  Efficiency determines general injury-risk profile, power and strength potential, rate of skill development etc.  It even strongly influences slippery concepts such as how well you feel.  It is usually what's meant when someone says they're not after big muscles but they want to be stronger.  Intuitively, we understand that there is a connection between a stronger body and greater functional well-being.  Efficiency, however, relates more strongly to a better organised or coordinated body with higher aerobic capacity than it does to one with stronger muscles.  There is essentially no correlation between stronger quads or biceps and improved basic function.  Our bodies function 'inside-out' and not 'outside-in'.
Of those who step up, how many achieve meaningful change?  My answer is very few and the data agrees with me.  Certainly poor instruction/ coaching for the journey doesn't help but our bodies are clever and will, with persistence, naturally develop more efficiency.  The more basic explanation is a lack of patience and persistence.  Commitment begins to wane in just a few short weeks regardless of how important the changes are.  
Why do we struggle to stay the course even when our lives depend on it?  The most obvious answer is that health and fitness outcomes are the product of the structures of our lives and unless these change neither will the outcomes.  I believe that our vision of time is at fault as well.  We think in short periods of time: how many days till the weekend, how many weeks until the holidays.  It isn't merely that we focus on outcomes but that even these are short term.  We do not 'think' in the long term, and that is where big change lives.  I am not actually suggesting that we think long-term but instead place much higher value on the long-term products and much less on short term outcomes.  We should all aim for more efficiency and fret less about big muscles.  The pay off would be better health and physical capacity and much happier lives.