MOVING ABROAD? REPEAT THIS MANTRA FOR EXPAT SUCCESS EVERYDAY …

The thrill of living and working everyday in a foreign culture can quickly morph into a major life mistake, if you aren’t prepared for the many often unexpected challenges of adjusting to cultural differences. Here’s a quick acrostic that you can use as a mantra for EXPAT SUCCESS to help you over the rough spots:

E: ELIMINATE all pre-judgments about the culture you will be moving into: any pre-judgments you have that are correct will not be problematic, and any you have (and there are probably many more than you realize) that are in fact incorrect, will only become problems, so eliminate them, and replace them with cultural facts about the country you are relocating into, facts you can glean from good cultural training.

X: EXAMINE deeply the reasons why you — and your partner — are taking the overseas assignment: is it for career advancement? To run away from an unhappy home or professional situation? Hold onto the good reasons, and examine deeply the bad reasons; or else they will derail your assignment sooner or later.

P: PLAN AHEAD: You cannot plan enough: there are myriad logistical issues to sort out, and lots to learn about the life and business styles of your new location abroad. Successful expats give themselves as much time to do this as possible, and take advantage of cultural…