Particularly with the mountain picture in the blog I think to a couple quotations from Edmund Hillary, the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest together with Tenzing Norgay.
<blockquote cite="">"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." </blockquote>
<blockquote cite="">"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things -- to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals." </blockquote>
Believing in someone puts the focus on them and their abilities, and not on the challenges they face.  The vision it gives them is not of a huge mountain but rather of all they bring to the mountain.  It is a vision of how great they are already, and how much more they will become for having faced the mountain.  As you said so wonderfully, Mike, that is indeed a great gift to give someone.
One more quote, from Neil Eskelin,
<blockquote cite="">"You may say, 'I’ve tried so many times before, but nothing seems to happen.' That’s what the mountain climber could have said after three failed attempts to reach the top of Mount Everest. Instead, he looked up at the summit and announced, 'You defeated me once. You defeated me twice. You defeated me three times. But mountain, I will someday conquer you, because you cannot get any bigger, and I can.' ”</blockquote>