Beyond the Reps | A Different Perspective
There's a pattern I see regularly in coaching.
Someone starts with a goal they're genuinely excited about.
They commit to training. They improve their nutrition. They start making better decisions.
And for the first few weeks, motivation is through the roof.
Then something happens.
The scales don't move as quickly as they'd hoped.
The muscle they're trying to build isn't appearing fast enough.
Or the changes they're making simply aren't as obvious as they expected.
Suddenly, they're frustrated.
They start questioning the program, their effort, whether they're doing enough, or whether any of it is actually working.
And before long, the motivation that got them started begins to disappear.
But what if the problem isn't their progress? What if it's their expectations?
Expectations change how we experience results.
Imagine two people making exactly the same amount of progress over twelve weeks.
One expected a dramatic transformation.
The other understood that meaningful physical change takes time.
Same results. Completely different experiences.
One feels disappointed.
The other feels encouraged.
And that distinction matters.
Because motivation isn't influenced only by what we achieve. It's also influenced by how we interpret what we've achieved.
When the gap between our expectations and reality becomes too large, even genuine improvements can start to feel insignificant.
Not because those improvements don't matter.
But because we've already decided they aren't enough.
You can be making progress and still convince yourself you're failing.
That's a pretty effective way to suck the enjoyment out of something you were once excited about.
Impatience doesn't always look like impatience.
Sometimes it looks like someone constantly changing their training program.
Sometimes it's adding more cardio because the scales haven't moved for three days.
Sometimes it's reducing food intake despite already following an appropriate nutrition strategy.
Or jumping from one approach to another because someone on social media apparently achieved their dream physique in eight weeks.
Conveniently forgetting that we know absolutely nothing about their starting point, training history, genetics or what happened outside those eight weeks.
The problem isn't necessarily that someone lacks discipline.
They might be incredibly committed.
The problem is that they're measuring their progress against a timeline that was never realistic in the first place.
And when the results don't match that timeline, they assume something must be wrong.
The constant search for something better.
Here's where impatience can become particularly counterproductive.
When people believe their progress is too slow, they often start searching for a faster solution.
A new training split.
A different diet.
More training volume.
Another supplement.
A completely different coaching approach.
Now, sometimes an adjustment is absolutely warranted.
Good coaching involves reviewing information, evaluating outcomes and making changes when necessary.
But changing something simply because you're frustrated isn't the same as making an informed adjustment.
You can spend so much time searching for a faster way to get results that you never give a good approach enough time to work.
And every unnecessary change can make it harder to determine what's actually producing results.
You've changed the training.
You've changed the nutrition.
You've changed the activity.
And now you're wondering which variable is responsible for what you're seeing.
Brilliant. We've managed to make the process more complicated without necessarily making it more effective.
Why this matters for motivation.
Motivation isn't something we either have or don't have.
It fluctuates.
Our goals, environment, experiences and perception of progress can all influence our willingness to continue.
Psychological research into motivation highlights the importance of perceived competence: feeling capable of making progress towards something that matters to us.
When people recognise improvement, it can help reinforce their confidence and engagement.
But when they repeatedly interpret their efforts as unsuccessful, motivation can suffer.
And unrealistic expectations can contribute to that interpretation.
This doesn't mean patience magically creates motivation.
It means the way we define and recognise success can influence whether we feel encouraged to continue.
If your only definition of progress is reaching your final goal, you're overlooking an enormous amount of meaningful work along the way.
Being patient doesn't mean accepting no progress.
This is an important distinction.
I'm not suggesting you should blindly follow a plan for six months while nothing improves.
That's not patience. That's a lack of evaluation.
There should be appropriate measures in place to determine whether your approach is producing the intended outcome.
Depending on the goal, that might include training performance, body measurements, progress photographs, body-weight trends, recovery or other relevant indicators.
And those measures need to be interpreted over appropriate timeframes.
One weigh-in doesn't establish a trend.
One difficult training session doesn't mean you've lost strength.
And one week without a visible physique change doesn't mean your program has stopped working.
Patience isn't the absence of assessment. It's understanding how long something reasonably needs before you can assess it properly.
That understanding is what allows you to distinguish between slow progress and a genuine problem that requires attention.
Maybe your expectations need adjusting, not your program.
I think this is one of the most valuable conversations we can have in coaching.
Not every period of frustration requires a new strategy.
Sometimes it requires a better understanding of what's realistic.
How much muscle can someone reasonably expect to build at their current training age?
How quickly can body composition change without unnecessarily compromising performance or recovery?
How long might it take to develop a particular area of the physique?
And what does meaningful progress actually look like between now and the final goal?
These questions aren't about lowering standards.
They're about setting expectations that reflect the reality of human physiology rather than the latest transformation reel.
Because if you expect twelve months of progress in twelve weeks, there's a very good chance you'll spend those twelve weeks feeling disappointed.
Even when you're doing everything right.
The takeaway
I don't think most people need another motivational quote telling them to be patient.
They need to understand why patience matters.
They need realistic expectations, meaningful ways to measure progress and enough knowledge to recognise when an adjustment is actually necessary.
Because there's a difference between something not working and something not working as quickly as you'd like.
A lack of patience doesn't just make you frustrated with your progress.
It can make you lose motivation for a process that was actually working.
And that's a pretty bloody frustrating way to sabotage yourself.
— Kelly Greenslade
KG Performance
The science. The experience. The thinking behind the work.