5 Reasons Military Spouses Should Make Time for Learning

Inside: Ever feel lost or like you are searching for identity? Join Milspo Gurus as we help you begin the work of discovering yourself. The Military Wife and Mom readers can enjoy a 50% discount on enrollment by using the code BACKTOSCHOOL.

By Claire Wood

It’s back to school time and for those of us with children, that means we are busy meeting teachers, trying to ease back into routines, making countless trips to the store to get every item on that elusive supply list, and just maybe…dreaming of how we might spend our days once our kids ride off into the horizon on the school bus.

As military families, these back to school transitions can be wrought with anxiety for our students and ourselves. Will the school climate be welcoming to us? Will my son or daughter make friends easily? Will my child be behind or ahead coming from our last assignment.

The best thing we can do is embrace the change, get on board with the new program, and support our kids in their educational endeavors. After all, education is vital to the development of our precious offspring.

As a parent and military spouse, it is only natural to prioritize the learning experience for our resilient kids. We spend countless hours making sure they have everything they need for a smooth year. In fact, we do this for our service-member spouses as well.

We support them and manage the home and family operation when they go off on TDYs or attend trainings and schools. All around us, our people are continually learning.

Are you?

Most of us are happy to serve in this supporting role, but what if I told you that YOU, too, are a valuable member of your family who deserves to invest in her own education and personal development?

Maybe you keep putting off going back to school, finishing your degree, or obtaining licensure or a professional certificate. Maybe it feels overwhelming to think about committing to a full-time program. Maybe you aren’t sure you can afford it. Maybe you aren’t even sure what it is you would like to study or pursue. Maybe you just know that there is a stirring inside of you to learn something–do something–and improve yourself!

Consider these five benefits of learning more about YOURSELF and growing into your various roles.

1. Taking time for yourself to pursue any form of learning and education is an important component of self-care.
2. Valuing your own education (whether formal or informal), models to those around you the significance of lifelong learning.
3. Acquiring knowledge on a new-to-you topic keeps you engaged in the world around you.
4. Personal development can help you understand and reach greater potential relationally and professionally.
5. Education helps us to cultivate more self-awareness and confidence in all of our various roles.

Many of us are looking for a way to learn how to make sense of the challenges we continually face in our military life. Strains like constant relocations, a lack of connectivity in our marriages, frequent separations, and lost identity plague and even cripple many of us.

What better time than the back to school season to consider making an investment in yourself? While degree programs and traditional adult education have their place, military spouses are seeking something different and new. Maybe something with less cost and commitment. Maybe something fun for the sake of engaging in the process of personal transformation.

My colleague Kellie Artis and I have been working for over a year to develop a tool that helps military spouses navigate such difficulties. Using the Enneagram as a launching point, Milspo Gurus has created an eCourse, “Becoming Your Own Guru” and in the course you will find over three hours of video instruction broken up into digestible bites and organized in cohesive modules; the Becoming Your Own Guru Workbook that includes a 17 page downloadable guide with diagrams, definitions, reflection prompts, and exercises to help you work towards embracing your identity; an invitation to join our closed Facebook community, The Milspo Gurus Collective; and downloadable audio files of all of our lectures.

As a thank you to The Military Wife and Mom readers, we are offering a half-off discount for lifetime access to the course. At checkout use code BACKTOSCHOOL.

Want more on military life?

• The Biggest Mistake a Military Spouse Can Make
• 21 Best Deployment Quotes for Military Spouses and Significant Others
• OPSEC 101 for Military Spouses: How to Keep Your Family Safe
• The Pain of Saying Goodbye to Your Military Spouse Tribe