After the Rush · Free Download
A practical exercise for designing the life you still have time to build.
Download FreeStep 2 — The Big Lists
Travel
Check off what you have done. Circle what pulls at you.
I sat down to write a bucket list not long ago. I expected it to be easy.
Blank page. Cursor blinking. Nothing.
Not because I had no desires. Because when I tried to name them honestly, I realized I was not entirely sure what I actually wanted.
This workbook is the structured version of what I built to get past that blank page.
What's inside
Before you make a list of what you want, you account for what you have already had. Most people find this more satisfying than they expect.
Curated starter lists across five categories. Travel. Learning. Legacy. Relationships. Adventure. Check off what you have done. Circle what pulls at you.
Transfer your circles, answer five deeper questions, and write the final list in plain language. No filtering. No qualifying. Just what you want.
Why this works
It meets you where you actually are.
Not where you are supposed to be. The workbook starts by asking what you have already done and already had. For most people in this chapter, that inventory alone is worth the download.
It does the hard work of getting you started.
The blank page is the problem. This workbook solves it. Five curated lists give you something to react to rather than invent from scratch.
It goes underneath the obvious answers.
Page four asks the questions most people have never sat with: what you would do if no one would judge you, what you loved before you got too busy, what you would regret not doing.
It is designed for this chapter specifically.
Not for a 30-year-old with an open horizon. For someone who has already built something and is now asking what comes next with real material to work with.
It is short enough to actually finish.
16 pages. You can do the whole thing in an afternoon with a pen and a cup of coffee. No app required. No account to create.
It is free.
No catch. No upsell on the other side of the download. Just the workbook.
"The question of what you actually want from the time ahead is not a small one. It deserves an afternoon, a pen, and a willingness to be a little surprised by your own answers."
Catherine McDowell · After the Rush
About the author
I am not a researcher or a life coach with a certification. I am an occupational therapist, nonprofit founder, financial educator, and grant writer who has navigated more than one second act.
My husband is ten years older than I am. I have a front-row seat to what the next chapter actually looks like before I arrive in it myself. I write about it every week at After the Rush.
The newsletter is free. No wellness fluff. No condescending senior tips.
Catherine McDowell
Occupational therapist
Nonprofit founder
Financial educator
After the Rush
Free download
16 pages. A pen. A willingness to be surprised.
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