thinking about what comes next

Lots of key strokes have been pounded over the need to be mindful. We live in the eternal present tense, but we forget that when we are ruminating over something from the past or--as I do--pitching feverishly toward what comes next. Most of what I drag my mind back from when I'm meditating is what I've got to do when I'm done meditating. I tend not to be a grudge-bearer, but that's only because I squint hard at what's in the rear view mirror and...then move on, intent on the future.

It's neither good nor bad, it's just the way I'm configured.

Adam Morgan and Mark Bard talk about the beautiful constraint in their book* (read it, it's great!), which is a business application to making lemonades when life tosses you our favorite citrus. I've heard it called selling what sucks. We can also think of it as leveraging a perceived failing into a serious up-side. It's taking the hand you've been dealt and marketing it as a happy plus. One of my constraints is a constant pull toward "what's next?" This steady gearing toward the future is a limitation that often imbues my present moments with anxiety and exhaustion. That means, yes, I have to pay attention, be mindful, and take naps. But it also generates a planful state, an orderly household and a pretty constant to-do list that keeps things moving along and ship-shape.Given your set of skills, characteristics, limitations, how do you leverage them positively? 

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*A Beautiful Constraint: How To Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages, and Why It's Everyone's Business