Years from now, someone might say “you were the first person who believed in me.” Aim to deserve that sentence.

Somewhere down the line, somebody may point at a thing you said and call it the moment they started taking themselves seriously. You will not be able to predict which sentence it was. That is the strange arithmetic of believing in people: you cannot aim it, you can only be the kind of person who says the true encouraging thing often enough that some of it lands.

Tell one person this week what you have actually noticed they are good at. Be concrete about it. Then keep an eye out for how they do, and say so again later.