Sitting at home and gazing out on your windswept and rain soaked garden it is easy to imagine yourself with a new life in a new country, but just how does the picture in your mind's eye compare to the reality after you have made the move? Well, this question is not perhaps as easy to answer as you might think.

Possibly the biggest problem is that there are such a large number of variables to take into account and so many factors which are quite simply unknown at the outset. It is very easy, for example, to think that the fact that you do not speak the language is unimportant as, in the short term at least, you will probably be able to get by in your mother tongue and can always pick up the language in the longer term. Just how easy is it however for you to learn a language and just how easy is it to learn the language of your chosen country?

You may also be looking forward to all that exotic food, but just how is a possibly substantial change in your diet going to affect your health? You may very well have enjoyed some wonderful restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the kind of food you will be eating on a daily basis when you are cooking for yourself?

All of these problems are of course minor when you compare them to trying to adjust mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but possibly a very different culture. Those things which you have thought of as both curious and fascinating when on holiday could well present you with considerable difficulty when they are part and parcel of your daily life.

Most countries with an expat community of any size develop a substantial support network, which often includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes outings and events, distributes its own newspaper and much more. Initially this may seem to be very comforting but it is worth considering why the expatriates in the country to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you examine the extent to which the lives of many expatriates revolve around the expat community you could well find yourself asking why they want to live overseas at all.

In point of fact a significant number of expats find that, once the novelty wears off, they regret their decision but have often burnt their bridges and now find that they have choice other than to stay where they are and make the best of what is a far from an ideal situation.

This is not of course true of all expats and, as an expatriate myself, I can assure you that there are many of us who are more than happy with our decision to move overseas and would not wish to turn back the clock. For many hundreds of people every year the decision to move overseas turns out to be the best decision they have ever made and one which they most certainly do not regret. By can you know which group you are going to fall into before you make your decision?

Unfortunately, you can never be certain, but there are several things that you can do to increase your chances of your decision being one that you are glad you made.

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

It is no use just visiting your chosen country once or twice a year on holiday, staying in hotels and dining out in restaurants. Ideally you need to spend at least a year in the country and throw off any idea of being on holiday. You need to make a determined effort to live as you would wish to live in the long term, steering clear of tourist areas and activities and becoming part of the local community. Live just like a local, doing your own cooking and taking the time to learn about the local history, lifestyle and culture, while at the same time starting to learn the language.

By steering clear of the expatriate community and integrating yourself into the local community from the very start you will rapidly discover whether or not you would be making a wise decision to live overseas permanently.