Cheer like a Norwegian
Photo by Lukas Zischke on Unsplash
The other day immediately after delivering a virtual workshop, I received a direct message from one of the attendees. In this particular workshop, several technical things had gone wrong and there were many questions that I was answering while trying to hit all the topics. Therefore, when I received this unprompted message telling me how great the session was and how I did a particularly good job juggling questions, I let out a big sigh of relief. Despite being a professional and doing this for years, it still feels good to get some encouragement, and research shows I’m not alone in needing it.
A meta-analysis published by the American Psychological Association found that people who perceive higher levels of social support tend to experience better mental health, stronger workplace performance, and greater overall thriving. While that may not be surprising, it serves as a useful reminder that encouragement is not just a nice gesture, it influences how we experience challenges, setbacks, and the long stretches of effort that often separate where we are from where we hope to be.
During the 2026 Men's World Cup, the Norwegian soccer fans became momentarily famous for bringing their Norwegian rowing chant to other sporting events. The large group of fans attended a random Mets game while visiting New York, and even though most of them knew very little about baseball, according to the MLB they cheered whenever the Mets did something "even vaguely positive." When I first read that phrase, it made me laugh out loud because it captures something we don't see nearly often enough: most of us are pretty good at celebrating success once it arrives, what is harder and often more meaningful, is encouraging someone while they are still in the middle of the effort.
Most of life happens there, in the months of training before race day, the chapters written before the book is published, the job search before the offer arrives, the recovery before strength returns, and the long stretches of work when progress is real, but results are not yet visible. Most of us can probably identify people who have played that role in our own lives: they were the friends, family members, colleagues, mentors, coaches, or teachers who encouraged us before we achieved the goal, solved the problem, or reached the finish line. Their support wasn't tied to the outcome; they simply believed the effort was worth encouraging.
A few days later, many of those same fans showed up at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut to support Norwegian golfer Viktor Hovland. Hovland hadn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2025 Valspar Championship, but the fans brought the same energy to the golf course that they had brought to the Men's World Cup and Citi Field. After Hovland won the tournament in a playoff over Scottie Scheffler, he joined the fans in their now-famous Viking Row celebration and credited their support as part of what made the week so memorable. The fans didn't know when they arrived that they would get to celebrate a victory; they showed up because one of their own was competing and they wanted him to know they were in his corner.
The older I get, the more I see that encouragement is one of the easiest gifts we can give and one of the most valuable gifts we can receive. It costs very little to celebrate a small win, recognize someone's persistence, or remind a person that their effort hasn't gone unnoticed: Life gives us plenty of critics, analysts, and scorekeepers, but what many of us need is someone willing to notice when things are moving in the right direction, even if the progress is small. We need people who send the encouraging text, ask how things are going, acknowledge the effort, and remind us that the work matters before the outcome is certain.
The Norwegian fans weren't waiting for a championship moment before they cheered, and they weren't evaluating whether the effort had produced a worthy result; they simply showed up ready to recognize progress whenever they saw it. This week, look for an opportunity to celebrate someone's progress while it is still in progress. Cheer for something "even vaguely positive." You never know how much difference a little encouragement might make.
