Tell someone “I’m proud of you” before they’ve finished. People need that line in the middle more than at the end.

Encouragement has a schedule, and most of it arrives after the outcome is already known. The middle is where it is needed, in the stretch with no evidence yet, where the person cannot tell whether any of this is working. Praise at the finish is pleasant; praise in the middle changes whether there is a finish. Waiting for proof withholds it at the exact point it would count.

Think of someone partway through something hard and tell them now. Name the effort rather than the result. Say it without attaching advice.