The Quiet Side of Discipline: What It Means to Keep Showing Up

Discipline is often imagined as something intense and visible. Long hours, visible struggle, dramatic effort.

But most of the time, it is the opposite.

Sometimes, it looks like a closed door, a steady routine, and a two-year-old standing outside telling others not to disturb because his mother is working.

“That was my reality”, said Priyanka Baid Kothari, a working mother balancing career, motherhood, and the CFA journey.

What follows is her journey in her own words.

My finance journey did not begin with a clear plan. It came from something more personal. Growing up, I had seen financial instability closely enough to understand that money is not just a subject. It shapes choices, security, and independence. Learning how to manage it was no longer optional at that point of time.

That is how I chose Chartered Accountancy. It was practical, affordable, and something I could pursue from my hometown, Surat. I completed my CA in 2012, and it felt like a significant milestone.

Over time, I realized it was only the foundation.

I cleared my Chartered Accountancy in 2012, and like most of us at that stage, the immediate question was what comes next, and for me, that meant stepping into campus placements.

I had applied to Pune and Mumbai, and my first interview itself turned into my first job. That is how I started at Credit Suisse in Pune.

I walked into a role called product control without really knowing what it would involve. In the beginning, it was about understanding systems, processes, and how things moved within a large bank. But over time, the role started revealing its depth.

It was not about preparing numbers. It was about explaining them.

Each day revolved around understanding why numbers moved. Whether it was a trader’s decision, a market shift, or risk exposure, the role demanded interpretation. That was the first time I began to see finance not as calculation, but as a concept which demands deep thinking.

A few years later, life moved me to Dubai after marriage. That transition brought a different kind of challenge. It was no longer just about building a career from the scratch in a different place. It was about adjusting to a new country, managing a home, and finding structure in an unfamiliar environment.

In 2017, I joined Emirates NBD. The role expanded my exposure significantly. I was now interacting closely with traders and working across multiple financial products. The work became more dynamic, and so did the expectations.

That is when I started noticing a gap.

I understood what I was doing, but I did not always understand the deeper reasoning behind it. There were moments in conversations where I felt I needed more clarity. I wanted to move beyond process and develop a stronger conceptual understanding.

That is what led me to CFA.

It was not about adding another qualification. It was about building depth. I wanted to understand how interest rates influenced positions, how valuation worked, and how risk translated into profit and loss.

I wanted to be able to connect what I was seeing at work with the concepts behind it.

However, the biggest challenge was time.

There was hardly any phase where things slowed down enough to make studying easy. So I built a routine that could exist alongside everything else. I started waking up at four in the morning. Those two hours became my study time.

The rest of the day followed its usual rhythm of work and responsibilities. At night, I made it a point to revisit what I had studied in the morning.

The revision was not extensive, but it was consistent. That consistency ensured that progress, even if slow, was steady.

I cleared Level I and Level II while working full-time. When it was time for Level III, life changed again. My son, Samarth, was due around the same time as the exam. That was a moment where priorities became clear, and I chose to defer.

After he was born, the nature of my routine shifted again. During the COVID period, I was working from home while taking care of him. He was very young, just beginning to understand his surroundings. Without being told, he started recognizing my schedule.

He understood when I was working and when I was available. During work hours, he would not disturb me. If someone approached the door, he would stop them and explain that his mother was on a call or studying.

I never explicitly taught him this. He learned it by watching.

That phase made me realize something important. Children do not learn from instructions as much as they learn from what they see every day. They observe patterns, not words.

This understanding stayed with me and quietly shaped how I began to look at learning itself, not as something delivered through instruction, but as something absorbed through environment and experience.

At the same time, managing work and home was not about achieving balance in a perfect sense. There were days when work required more attention, especially during reporting cycles and deadlines. There were also days when my child needed me more. The priorities shifted constantly, and the only way forward was to adapt without stopping.

Through all of this, my understanding of finance found its depth. Chartered Accountancy had given me a strong base. CFA added another layer by connecting theory with real-world application, helping me move from simply reporting numbers to understanding what drives them.

A big part of this clarity also came from structured guidance under Mentor Aswini Bajaj. Having the right mentorship made the difference between just preparing for exams and actually building understanding.

I saw this not just in my own journey, but also in others who were able to stay consistent and work toward their goals with a clear direction under his guidance. It reinforced for me how the right mentor does not just teach, but also helps you stay steady when things get scattered.

Looking back, the journey is not defined by a few big moments. It is defined by small, repeated actions. Waking up early, studying consistently, continuing despite interruptions, and adjusting without losing direction.

Discipline, in this sense, is not about intensity. It is about continuity.

There will rarely be a phase where everything aligns perfectly. There will always be responsibilities, unexpected changes, and competing priorities. What matters is the ability to keep showing up through all of it.

Sometimes, that effort goes unnoticed. And sometimes, it is quietly understood by someone watching you every day.

In my case, it was a child standing outside a door, making sure I could continue.

1. • Discipline is continuity, not intensity: Real progress comes from small, repeated actions done consistently, not occasional bursts of effort.
   • Clarity often comes through practice, not theory alone: Moving from CA to CFA showed that understanding deepens when concepts are applied in real work situations.
   • The right mentorship accelerates direction, not just preparation: Guidance under Mentor Aswini Bajaj helped bring structure, clarity, and confidence, turning preparation into real understanding.
   • Learning happens through observation as much as instruction: Just as children learn patterns by watching, professional growth also happens by absorbing discipline from the environment and the people around us.
   • There is no perfect phase for growth: Career, exams, and personal responsibilities rarely align smoothly, progress happens through adaptation, not ideal conditions.
   • Structure creates stability in chaotic routines: Early mornings, fixed study hours, and consistent revision built a rhythm that worked alongside a demanding life.
   • Depth comes from connecting theory to real-world work: True understanding in finance came when numbers started linking to decisions, risk, and market behavior.