5 Questions with Aprilynne Alter

1. What are you most looking forward to lately?
The world opening back up again, enabling connection with more people. Through Twitter, I feel like I've finally found my people - the dreamers, the problem solvers, the creators, the indie makers. I can't wait to meet them all in person sometime soon!

2. What is your personal philosophy, in 3 words or less?
"Bias to action" I always bias toward acting on new ideas. If it doesn't work out, I will have at least learnt something I didn't know before. That new learning can then lead me to another newer and potentially more exciting thing.

3. You have a week without WiFi — what are you doing?
I'd roller skate in the mornings and lift at the gym in the afternoons. Beyond that, I'd spend most of my time writing (making progress on my fantasy book series, scripting new YouTube videos, journaling, and brainstorming tweet ideas) and reading (at any one evening, I always have my nose buried in some sort of fantasy novel.)

4. What do you wish more people celebrated?
Quitting! When we start out, we're usually equipped with a vague hypothesis of what we want to do or what makes us happy. As we continue through our professional and personal lives, we encounter new experiences that help upgrade our hypothesis. Quitting either a job or a relationship is usually a taboo topic. But each time we quit, it's an indicator that we've learned so much about ourselves and our goals, or that we've outgrown our last experience - that's something to be celebrated!

5. Authenticity is:
The knowledge of who you are, and the freedom to share yourself with others. As a high self-monitor, I struggled with being authentic for a long time. I became so caught up in how I "ought" to appear that I lost sight of who I actually was when no one else was around. I eventually was able to rediscover myself, and I made the conscious decision to never lose sight of her again.