It’s a truth that for almost every single one of us, the thought of living abroad is exciting. The thrills and positive challenges that we associate in our mind with living in an unknown nation, sampling life overseas and starting a whole new life where the possibilities are seemingly endless, make us really desire the expatriate lifestyle.
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Of course, whilst we may almost all dream of a new life abroad, not every single one of us will move overseas because of a whole host of reasons. We may be restricted because of work or family ties, financial constraints or perhaps just a little too much fear falling into the mix just at the critical point when we’re on the verge of giving in to our desires!
But, if you’re actually really thinking seriously about stepping into the unknown and embracing your dreams, we’re here to help. Did you know that of those who move abroad, about 20% quite quickly return home? The reasons are usually to do with the fact that the people in question failed to prepare adequately for their relocation. So, today we’re going to show you how you can make a new life abroad, living anywhere you want to – because at the end of the day, your success or your failure will depend almost wholly solely on you, and how well prepared you are.
At Shelter Offshore we certainly ‘promote’ the expatriate lifestyle – we all live it, we all love it, therefore it makes sense to write about something you know and love! However, what we don’t ever advocate is that someone up sticks, burns bridges and flees abroad on a momentary whim. Whilst this does happen all the time and can result in a very successful relocation, the odds are not stacked in favour of such an ill-prepared relocation!
We harp on about people planning, preparing, going on tester trips, renting abroad before committing to buying property and so on and so forth – and in this article today we’re going to focus on the top 10 character traits and personal attributes that we think are really important to have, embrace and develop if you want a rewarding, fulfilling and successful sojourn overseas. These are skills we can all work on and develop and improve – so we hope the following will be useful for you, as we impart knowledge that in some cases here at Shelter Offshore, has been hard won!!
1) Skill Up for Employment
If you’re going abroad and you’re going to need to find work to survive and thrive, you really do need to be educated! Don’t shout at the computer screen – no, I’m sure telling people they need to get an education is not politically correct! However, it’s a fact! If you’re going to move in to another country, another culture, another community, why should you, over and above an embedded, local person, be employed? What have you got that ranks you head and shoulders above a local person, that should see you get a job, an income and financial stability before them?
Think about it in terms of your own home nation. There you are at a job interview, surrounded by your peers from your own community and there is a foreign face amongst you. How much harder is that person going to have to work to prove themselves worthy of the job?
So, skill up if you want to move abroad and have the best chance of securing a job. Even those who think they can relocate and ‘just teach English’ need to be aware that there are plenty of expats out there who are very highly qualified ESL teachers who will get a job ahead of anyone who just happens to speak the language! Take your relocation seriously, this is your life you’re we’re talking about here!
2) Get Fit and Healthy
To get the very most out of travel and adventure you need to be fairly physically fit, and as healthy as possible. What’s more, you don’t really want to find out first hand on the first day what the local medical facilities are like do you?
As you orientate yourself around your new community you may have to do so on foot or public transport until you’re settled enough to afford a car, what’s more, when you live abroad you’re seldom content with just knowing your local community! Having made the move you’re going to want to get to know everything about your new country and even its neighbouring nations…so more travel will probably be the norm.
Being physically fit so that you can walk quite a few miles in a day, and being healthy enough that you haven’t got to desperately look around for a pharmacist or establish a close working relationship with a doctor in every town you rock up in will be important! So, get fit and healthy ahead of a move to make life easier for yourself.
3) Be Brave and Bold
No matter where you move to, you will be a foreigner in a foreign land and there will be moments following your relocation where your confidence dives. You will feel afraid, unsettled and uncomfortable just because everything is very unfamiliar. You need to be brave and bold and hold your nerve. You are outside your comfort zone, but you are not unsafe, (unless you’ve put yourself in danger and moved to a war zone, which we don’t recommend), so be prepared for what you may feel and stay strongly focused on the positive aspects of your move.
4) Save Some Cash
Whilst you may be moving abroad to a job that’s waiting for you, or you’re planning on travelling and living on a shoestring, the fact of the matter is, there will be times when your allocated salary or budget falls short of the financial demands on you. This always happens when you relocate abroad. There is always some unforeseen expense! Perhaps you have to pay a larger than expected deposit to secure your accommodation, maybe you ‘forgot’ about the money needed to change utilities into your name, or maybe you just decide you need to shell out on a bike or a car sooner rather than later so you can get around.
All of these occurrences are commonplace – and mean you need to have a financial contingency plan in place. Save up some cash and have it close to hand when you move abroad for these unforeseen and unexpected big bills. And always, always have an emergency fund to get you out and get you home if the worst happens and you decide you hate it abroad. Do not venture forth without the fiscal foundations in place – you will put yourself in a vulnerable and negative place and you could unwittingly destroy your dream.
5) Be Flexible and Adaptable
No matter how well you think you have planned, and no matter how well you think you know your new nation, there will be times, situations and events that are not what you expect! So, be adaptable, be flexible, be willing to open your mind and continue to learn on a daily basis.
Sometimes it can be exhausting and overwhelming and all you will want is a little familiarity – well, you can build this in to your home environment so that you can escape and recuperate back in your flat or house. But, you must know that by living abroad, you may constantly face challenges and new situations that will forever keep you on your toes. This is part of what many expats love most about their new life – there is no mundane, there is always something new to learn and experience.
However, the reality is that occasionally it can all get too much, so be as adaptable as you possibly can be to thrive – and take time out to recuperate!
6) Be Canny and Think Laterally
Living abroad as an expat makes you adaptable and flexible even if you aren’t already adaptable and flexible when you relocate! You have to adapt to learn to fit in. But if you really want to thrive, you need to think outside of the box you’re used to. ‘Back home’ wherever that is for you, certain things will work in a certain way and you will never question that. When you move abroad and all of a sudden certain things don’t work full stop, you need to be able to learn, think sideways, find and create, make and master ‘work arounds’ and be very, very resourceful!
An example – the plumbing in one nation I lived in was so horrendously, universally awful and prehistoric, my partner at the time used the Internet to quickly skill up and save us from disaster time and again! He became so good at fixing or botching that which had already been botched, that he could have made a very good living out of his new skills as other expats around us suffered too!
7) Ethics, Integrity and Morals Matter
I don’t really buy in to any sort of propaganda that as an expat you’re an ambassador to your home country – because we’re all individuals, and if someone forms an opinion about an entire country based on their encounter with one person, that’s narrow minded to say the least! However, if you want to have a smooth ride, see doors opening rather than slamming in your face and you don’t want to antagonise, upset or anger your local hosts, you do need to behave fairly well!
So, learn about the local customs, expectations, moral standards and laws – and stay on the right side of things by adapting your behaviour appropriately where necessary. By being ‘good’ you will get on more quickly and easily…it’s boring but true!
8) Positive Thinking and Smiles Help
If you constantly focus on the negative aspects of your new life, you will begin to hate it and resent it. What’s more, it is a FACT that if you focus on negative things, you attract negative things! It’s not some spiritual heeby jeeby rubbish to state that – it is true! If you believe bad things are all that can and will happen, that’s all that can and will happen to you – you will make decisions from a place of negativity that will lead you to a negative place. It’s just the way the world works.
So, stay positive. Remember the dream you had of your new life abroad? Well, keep dreaming it and it will happen for you. What’s more, people love to be around and associated with happy, positive people who give off good vibes – so you’ll make more friends and be exposed and open to more positive opportunities.
Smiling also gets you far – although women in certain nations shouldn’t directly smile at local men, check out local customs first…it can get you into trouble and tarnished with a reputation! But in the right situation and with the right people, smiling, being friendly and open will win you friends and allow you to positively influence the outcome of your life.
9) Make Friends
The more sociable you can be, the more you can network, be brave and get out and about and meeting people, the more likely you are to meet likeminded people who will become good and long-lasting friends. We all need some friends and some positive and friendly acquaintances in life – they make everything so much easier! And when you’re a foreigner in a foreign land with no support network of established friends and family, the sooner you can rebuild your network the sooner you will be getting more out of your life, and finding life easier and better.
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10) Stay Passionate
You moved abroad because on some level you were passionate about making a new, better, different life for yourself overseas. Well, in order to get the most out of your life you need to find and maintain that passion. Life can throw any number of challenges and hurdles up along the way – that’s probably what life’s all about, challenging us so we learn and develop – but with passion comes positivity, and with positivity you can overcome anything, eventually.
In Conclusion
As the above hopefully shows you, YOU hold the most important keys when it comes to the potential for a positive outcome for your relocation. Don’t go into expatriation in a passive way, engage with your dream and live your life as fully as you possibly can to get the very most out of it.
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