Thank people during the hard season, not just after it. Encouragement in the middle is when it counts.

Praise almost always arrives late, when the outcome is known and the person no longer needs it. In the middle of a hard stretch nobody can tell whether the effort is working, and that is when a word from outside changes what somebody can carry. Afterward it is a nice summary. During, it is fuel.

Think of one person currently in the thick of something: a long season, a hard class, a job they cannot enjoy. Tell them this week, while it is still unresolved, that you see what they are doing. Do not wait to find out how it ends, and do not attach advice.