Expat Resilience

Summary: Expats and nomads who learn how to actively develop their resilience will find the challenges abroad to be far more manageable. Here's a good, healthy start on how to start that process!

Resilience is among the most important skills for expatriates and nomads to evaluate themselves for and work to develop.

Let's first define resilience. "Experts" in various areas of psychological research and theory differ to some degree in their views of resilience, so we'll define it generally to avoid confusion.

Resilience is the ability to adapt and function well after some kind of hardship. It doesn't mean that you are impervious to difficulty... it just means you can weather the storm and carry on in your day-to-day living. That might be incomplete for the experts, but it gets to the heart of the matter for our purposes here.

Another quick note: Even if you decide not to move or live abroad, it still makes a great deal of sense to work on the development of your own level of resilience. It is quite possible to develop the characteristics that increase your level of resilience. It is a tremendous asset for any number of situations that we're all likely to encounter at some point in our lives.

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One of the reasons it is important for people considering a move abroad to evaluate their history of resilience is because they are almost always going to experience trying circumstances that will test their ability to cope.

So if you're giving a hard look at international living, here are a few things to consider before you take the plunge.

Consider how well you have managed difficult situations or experiences in the past. How have you dealt with loss or when things didn't go as planned?
Do you feel like things are beyond your control when you encounter difficulties?
Do you have a strong sense of what you are good at and what you are not good at?
Are you frequently overcome by your emotions?
Are you good at establishing and maintaining a real-world social network?

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Those should give you a good idea of where we're headed, but let's spell out some strategies using that same list, plus a few other tips:

If you've handled adversity in the past you can do it again. Recognize what you have handled in the past. Learn from those experiences and apply them to challenges in the present and those sure to come while living abroad.
Develop the sense that you have control over what goes on in your life and your day-to-day experiences. That can be quite difficult while you settle into a new country and culture. The ability to sort out what you can change and what you cannot is critical!
Be honest about what you are good at it and learn how to leverage it to your advantage. Don't focus on what you are not good at, which can lead to a great deal of frustration and give you the sense that you have no control over anything (see above!).

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Emotional regulation is very important. There will be difficult times and gaining control over your emotions will help you avoid turning small problems into bigger ones or an actual crisis. Consider what helps you maintain emotional balance. Exercise? Reading? Talking with friends? Journaling? Playing an instrument? Whatever it is, leverage it to your advantage.
Build a Social Network in the Real World. Yes, online resources like Expat Exchange are great for certain aspects of expatriate life, but if you get out there and build relationships will help you feel like there are others around you who can help and support you, and vice versa!

This is a good start on your path to understand resilience and how you can develop and nurture your ability to weather the storm. If you latch on to just a few of the ideas contained in this article and apply them to your expatriate or nomad experience, you will surprise yourself when it comes to what you can handle out there on the world stage!

Expat Resilience

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