The What It Takes series is back at Westminster with an alumna speaking on ways to Develop Resilience and Stay Motivated.
The What It Takes event series features an array of exciting and innovative alumni speakers sharing their experience and advice on a diverse range of topics, focusing on employability, personal and professional development. On 21 October, the speaker discussed the idea of resilience, and how students can stay motivated when facing challenges.
Alumna Anastasia Vinnikova, Wellbeing Lead at the Bank of England, explored how rather than always being positive and ‘strong’, acknowledging one’s vulnerability can be a key part of developing resilience. The Business Management BA (Human Resource Management) graduate also helped students to identify common challenges to motivation, such as peer and social pressure, job hunts, and toxic perfectionism.
The talk included where to look for support and the importance of building networks, as Anastasia brought her personal and professional experience together to advise the students and graduates.
Anastasia is a former member of the Commission for Equality in Mental Health, and a Co-Chair of the Thriving from the Start Network, a mental health network focusing on those early on in their careers or about to finish their studies. She has also founded Winning Minds, a mental health resource for sportspeople.
One-hundred and forty students and recent graduates attended the event, and left some of the following comments:
“I found this session absolutely amazing and helpful. It was a lot of information about well-being and how to cope with barriers that make us feel anxious and stressed. I will try to follow the advices given by Anastasia and look after my mental health more carefully. Thank you.”
“Anastasia gave great advice and helpful tips to improving your mental health. She also gave great advice on how to better your motivation, resilience and productivity in a healthy way. The advice was really relevant to me as a student. Thank you to Anastasia, Justin and all the other staff who organised the event!”
“I thought it was great and very insightful. I actually realised that I have some bad habits which I am going to work on changing. She gave us a lot of great tips on improving our mental health. Really enjoyed it and very helpful!”
The next What It Takes event will be 'What it Takes to Turn Virtual Networks into Opportunities' on 4 November.
Related articles
