Interview with Nancy Katyal, author of Commit to Yourself : Break Free

In the world of information overload, where we are constantly bombarded with fake news, photoshopped images, breaking news and content that is nudging us on repeat and informing us what is important for us.

on Apr 24, 2023

Interview with Nancy Katyal, author of Commit to Yourself : Break Free

Nancy Katyal is a leading voice in the corporate circle as an internationally certified executive presence coach and leadership development consultant with close to two decades of experience. She is also a visiting professor in top B-schools like the IIMs and MIT University. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies, startups, luxury brands, leading corporates, celebrities, top B-schools and organisations like FICCI, CII to name a few. Nancy is president of Leadership & Mentoring Council, Maharashtra, at Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WICCI).Nancy has been featured in leading national newspapers like the Indian Express, Pune Times, the Times of India, and she has been aired on radio channels too. She has many awards to her credit like the Lokmat Sakhi Sanman Award for contribution in the education sector, Limca Book of Records—National Record, Guinness World Records and fifty-one most influential women award by Brij Bhumi Foundation.

Frontlist: What inspired you to write "Commit to Yourself?"

Nancy: We all have had moments in our life where we have felt confused, lacked clarity and felt lost. There have been times where we wanted to make a change but kept postponing it. We were committed to helping others, being there for them at all times but somehow fell short of giving the same commitment to ourselves. I know exactly how it feels to be stuck in this vicious cycle and not being able to take any action.

There are several incidents in our life that nudge us to take a step forward and to break the patterns that don't serve us and amongst many such incidents, one incident that impacted me occurred a decade ago. I was attending a workshop where it appeared to me that every participant was enjoying themselves and was deeply immersed in the experiences being offered. I was physically present but mentally, I wasn’t fully there. Everything seemed great outside but something was not going well inside. I took a pause and asked myself, “Nancy, do you want to continue living your life in this way or do you want to unlock your greatness?”

And it was in that moment, a flashback of my life played in front of my eyes– like those moments at work front when I wanted to speak my mind but stopped myself, moments when I wanted to tell someone that it is not okay for them to take my kindness for granted, moments where I wanted to take a leap of faith and share my ideas but held myself back and realized the cost I paid for those inactions in the longer run. It was at that moment when I decided to take charge and embark on my journey of healing and worked on ways to prioritize myself and my self-growth.

Through my 2 decades of coaching and training my clients, building my own skills and speaking to experts from the industry, I implemented frameworks that drastically helped me transform and have benefited myself. I wanted to share these frameworks, mental models, actionable tools and practical insights that helped me with others that can support them to lead a fulfilling life and make that much needed shift through the book- Commit To Yourself.

Frontlist: Your book focuses on changing one's mind set, attitude, and actions. What do you think is the biggest obstacle that prevents people from making meaningful changes in their lives?

Nancy: To overcome any old pattern that is not serving us, we need to change our mindset and the way we look at things and life. We need to challenge our current thinking and must step out of our comfort zone. It requires for us to be able to trust ourselves, take the leap of faith and believe that we are capable of creating the life we truly deserve and want.

Many of us fail to realize that sometimes we are the biggest obstacle that comes in our own way. Most of us have become comfortable with our pain because that pain and pattern seems familiar and we fear change. Change appears uncomfortable because it's unfamiliar. We fear the unknown and also fear what others will say if we don't succeed and this thinking pattern manifests itself in the form of self-loathing, self-doubt and a feeling of powerlessness, feeling of being stuck and hence we don't take any action. Another reason is simple, we are looking for quick fixes to handle our life problems and I do not blame people, we live in a culture where we are bombarded with messages claiming that a product or service can change their life in a week or 10 days and some of us believe we cannot change now or we are too old to make the change, whereas breakthrough moments are usually the result of actions taken over time.

Frontlist: In the book, you discuss the importance of living by one's core values. How can readers identify their core values and align their actions with them?

Nancy: In the world of information overload, where we are constantly bombarded with fake news, photoshopped images, breaking news and content that is nudging us on repeat and informing us what is important for us. We need to come out of that noise and ask ourselves- what is important for you, what makes you happy, what do you care the most about, what are your priorities and knowing all of this is possible when we take time out to discover what the top core values in our life are. In the book I talk about value discovery exercises and the key steps one can take to discover our core values because values are the principles and standards you set for yourself. Values represent your unique essence. All the high points and low points in our life guide us about the choices we made and the good news is by getting clarity on your values, you filter out things that do not matter to you.
Our values are our inner guiding direction tool (IGDT). Once you start to do things in alignment with your core values, you lead a more peaceful and satisfied life. When your actions are in alignment with your values, you build your credibility in your own eyes and then decision making becomes easy and you lead the life based on what is truly important to you and knowing your values can be a game changer to unleash the treasure within.

Frontlist: The book includes several self-reflective exercises. What was the thought process behind including these exercises, and how can readers get the most out of them?

Nancy: As an author, I know the pain and confusion very well that one can experience when we face difficult situations in our life and in order to get clarity in such situations what is needed from our end is to create a space of self-reflection. I wanted to create a space in the book, where the reader gets an opportunity to pause, self-reflect and gain a deeper understanding of themselves. The exercises are designed to invite people to peel the deepest layer within and move towards their healing and personal growth journey. Every person's journey will be different and these exercises help them create their own unique path of transformation and healing. These exercises are a warm nudge for readers to explore the inner layers of their world and unlock new levels of self-awareness and joy.

Frontlist: The book draws on pioneering studies in behavioural science. Can you discuss how you incorporated these findings into the book?

Nancy: I believe most of us know a lot of things intellectually but struggle to take action in the direction that is beneficial for us because we are looking for a model or framework that can support us in our journey of personal transformation. My intention was to share practical, evidence-based strategies by drawing on the latest and proven research models and frameworks. During the journey of writing this book, I interviewed hundreds of people, conducted extensive research, shared proven and time-tested examples of my own clients who saw results and then narrowed down my research into clear actionable insights that are simple and readers could apply to their own lives.

Frontlist: How did your experiences mentoring thousands of people shape the advice and insights you offer in the book?

Nancy: As a coach, corporate trainer and leadership consultant, I had the opportunity of working with thousands of individuals from all walks of life who have shared their deepest fears, adversities, aspirations, dreams, secrets and hopes with me. Their stories have touched my heart and their transformational journeys were worth sharing.

Through my experience I have learned that every person's story is unique which comes with its own set of challenges and obstacles, but despite these challenges I have seen firsthand how people overcome these hurdles and made a meaningful change in their lives. These stories are a testimony to the fact that all of us are capable of making that much needed change in our lives and the insights and tools shared in the book are grounded in the real-world experiences of people. I hope by sharing these frameworks, practical strategies I can serve others in unlocking their full potential so that they lead a life that they truly desire because it’s never too late to lead a life that you truly wish to live.