For a long time, I thought resilient people were just wired differently, built to absorb pressure without flinching. Then life gave me enough evidence to prove myself wrong.
Building a specialised tax and advisory practice from the ground up isn’t a linear story. There were mandates that humbled me, moments where the path felt unclear, and seasons where I questioned whether I’d chosen the harder road for no good reason. Yet each time I showed up anyway to a client, to a run, to a difficult decision, something shifted.
1. Train for discomfort before it arrives
Long-distance running taught me this most viscerally. When your legs want to quit at kilometre 30, finishing isn’t about physical ability, it’s about the decision you make in that exact moment of doubt. I started treating every long run as a rehearsal for hard days at work. Now when a complex cross-border mandate hits a wall, I don’t panic. I’ve been in uncomfortable places before. I know I can keep moving.
2. Let the small chaos sharpen you
Motherhood has a way of dismantling your need for perfect conditions. With both my sons, I took four days off for my delivery and returned to work. I did client calls during night feedings, prepared for important meetings through school drop-off chaos, and held strategic thinking alongside the ordinary noise of family life. It taught me that focus isn’t about having the ideal environment, it’s about deciding what matters most and doing that thing anyway. Motherhood didn’t interrupt my work. It quietly made me better at it.
3. Back yourself when the outcome is unclear
When I left a structured firm to build my own practice, there were no guarantees. Resilience then wasn’t boldness, it was choosing to trust my own judgment one day at a time, gathering evidence through action rather than waiting for certainty.
Looking back, none of this felt like resilience in the moment. It only became visible in retrospect in the pattern of having kept going when stopping would have been easier. Resilience isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s something you practice, built in the small choices to not react, to stay curious under pressure, to keep learning when it would be easier to coast.
You don’t find resilience waiting for the hard moments. You build it quietly, in the ordinary ones.
Shared by :
Isha Sekhri
Author’s bio:
Isha Sekhri is a Chartered Accountant and founder of a specialised advisory practice focused on Transfer Pricing, FEMA, and international taxation.
