Sitting in your lounge and looking out on your windswept and rain soaked garden it is easy to imagine yourself living a new life in a new country, but how does the picture in your mind's eye compare to the reality after you have moved abroad? Well, this is not perhaps as easy a question to answer as you might imagine.

Perhaps the greatest problem is that there are such a large number of variables to consider and Such a large number of factors which are simply unknown at the beginning. It is very easy, for example, to think that the fact that you do not speak the language is of little importance as, in the short term at least, you may well be able to get by in your mother tongue and can always pick up enough of the language in the longer term. Just how easy is it however for you to learn a language and how easy is it to pick up the particular language of your chosen country?

You might also be excited about the prospect of all that exotic food, but how is a possibly substantial change in your diet going to affect your health? You might very well have tasted some wonderful high quality restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the type of food you will be eating every day when you are cooking for yourself?

The problems are of course relatively minor when it comes to comparing them to trying to adjust mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but frequently a very different culture. Those things which you have thought of as both curious and fascinating when on holiday might well present considerable difficulty when they are part and parcel of your daily life.

Many countries with a sizeable expatriate community develop a large support network, which frequently includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes events and outings, publishes its own newspaper and a great deal more. Initially this might seem very comforting but it is worth considering why the expats in the country to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you look at the extent to which the lives of many expats revolve around the expat community you could find yourself asking why they chose to live overseas in the first place.

In fact a significant number of expats find that, after the novelty has worn off, they regret their decision to move overseas but have frequently burnt their bridges and now find that they have choice except to remain where they are and to make the most of their situation.

This is not of course the case with all expats and, as an expatriate myself, I can tell you that there are also many of us who are very happy with our decision to move abroad and would not wish to turn back the clock. For many thousands of people each year the decision to move abroad is the best decision they have ever made and one which they most assuredly do not regret. By can you know which group of expats you are likely to fall into before you make your decision?

Regretably, you can never be certain, although there are some things which you can do to increase your chances of your decision being one which you will be glad you made.

One of the most important things that you can do is to test the water and that means living in your country of choice for a reasonable length of time before cutting your ties with home. But the critical word here is 'living'.

It is no good simply visiting your chosen country a couple of times each year on holiday, staying in a hotel and eating in restaurants. Ideally you need to spend at least a year in the country and to throw off any idea of being on holiday. You need to make a determined effort to live as you would want to live in the long term, staying away from tourist areas and activities and integrating yourself into the local community. Live like a local, doing your own cooking and making the time to learn something of the local history, lifestyle and culture, while at the same time starting to learn the language.

If you stay away from the expatriate community and integrate yourself into the local community from the very outset you will rapidly find out whether or not you would be making a wise choice to move overseas permanently.