Maintaining Balance as a Military Spouse, with Carla Swartz – TPW333

This week's episode features my conversation with special education professional, mom, and military wife Carla Swartz.  Join us as we discuss balancing a busy career, parenting, and a spouse in the military.  Military spouse or not, we all need to learn to rely on others during busy times Carla Swartz is a special education professional who lives in western Pennsylvania with her husband, who’s currently on a long deployment with the U.S. National Guard, and their two children, a 21-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter. She works for a public cyber charter school as a Regional Director of Special Education. Prior to moving into administration, Carla taught special education for 10 years, which has always been a passion for her. As Carla's children grew, her career blossomed and she found herself ready to move into an administrative role, which she has been doing for the last 4 years. Carla has found that as she has grown older, she has learned to better balance her career with her husband's career, as well as her family life. In Carla's free time she loves to read, trail run, and shop for antiques. She’s also a member of the TPW Community Facebook group, which is how I connected with her. A typical day Carla is an early riser (between 5:00 and 5:30 a.m.) and likes to start her day with a treadmill workout while she listens to a podcast. She has found it a bit challenging to stick with this schedule since working from home but knows she is just not her best without her morning exercise. She needs this time to herself in order to have a successful day. Carla also takes breaks throughout her workday to listen to music and dance a bit around her office to clear her head, rather than be in work mode the entire day. She sets an alarm to remind herself to do this each day. Although her husband has been on long deployments before during their marriage, Carla has found that with this particular deployment she has been especially challenged with finding a balance as a mother. Every day she tries to focus on only the priorities, whether that be personal or professional--what absolutely needs to be done and when that will be completed. If she has any remaining energy after completing the top priorities, she will work on other things.  However, at this point in her life, Carla is comfortable with having things left undone at the end of the day. She knows she can always get to them the next day. She tries to be very cognizant of her time, prioritizing only what is most important for her and her family. Carla has found that as she's gotten older, she's realized that getting everything done perfectly is not a realistic goal and not important. If you set yourself up for perfection all the time, you're going to feel like a failure all the time. Carla also thinks it's important to ask for help and rely on others to help you get things done, such as professional peers or family. Carla explains that she got to this way of thinking over time through trial and error and maturing, but also through making mistakes and getting burnt out. She got to the point where she was getting overwhelmed and making mistakes and realized that she had to ask for help, and it was okay. Asking for help didn't come naturally to her, but she's learned she can't do everything and isn't meant to. Carla is grateful that her parents and in-laws live nearby, as well as good friends she can rely on to help her when her husband is away. If you are in a similar situation to Carla but don't have family close by, she recommends stepping out of your comfort zone and searching out people in the community who can help. Be open to new relationships, join mom groups, and put yourself out there. Community matters to all of us, but it's especially important to those whose life partner is away for long periods of time due to mili...