Ensure Your Move Overseas is a Success - Eliminate Your Negative Talk and Get Moving!

At any stage in life you can encounter feelings of self-doubt and lethargy. It is estimated that we each have between 5,000 and 15,000 negative thoughts a day, rearing their ugly heads most prevalently when we're feeling vulnerable.

Although moving and living abroad can be extremely exciting and often a positive step to make in life, it also brings with it new challenges that test you to your limit and can leave you doubting your capabilities.

Below is a five-step process to help you blast your negative thoughts out of your head and power yourself towards achieving successful outcomes:

Step 1 - Raise awareness

The vast majority of your thoughts and beliefs occur in your subconscious mind so you probably won't even be aware that you hold them.

Your beliefs trigger your behaviour, making you act in ways you deem appropriate. Unfortunately the subconscious mind does not differentiate between your negative and positive beliefs, treating them equally and regarding both as 'true'.

It is important to raise your conscious awareness of the negative beliefs you hold by actively listening out for them. Every time you say something negative about yourself or your abilities, how you look, how you feel, how you think you're perceived by others, make sure you write your exact thought down.

Step 2 - Seek evidence for your beliefs

As mentioned earlier, 'beliefs' are statements that you personally hold to be true. It is interesting then that in the main, your negative beliefs will not actually be true. Beliefs are formed over time and the views of influential people in your life - parents, siblings and teachers for example - can have a powerful impact on the beliefs you hold about yourself.

When looking at the list of negative beliefs you wrote in Step 1, seek evidence for truth in each one. If you can't find any rock-hard evidence that supports your belief then accept that it is not true, cross that belief off your list and move on. If you do have evidence that there is some truth in a negative belief, make a decision to do something about it by following the next steps.

Step 3 - Identify your inner gremlin

Sometimes a negative thought can manifest itself in the form of a critical inner voice that sticks its nose into your business throughout your day telling you that you can't do things. I call it a 'gremlin' because it's mischievous and tends not to serve you well.

When your gremlin next pops up, stop. Close your eyes and imagine where it is in your body. Is it in your stomach? In your head? In your left arm? Your initial reaction is usually the one to follow. Now you know where it is think about what it looks, sounds and feels like. Does it have a texture? Is it cold or warm? Does it have arms or legs? Does it shriek like a banshee or does it have a low, monotonous voice?

Now you're familiar with it, give it a name. When it pops up next time call it by your chosen name and change its voice to something that makes you laugh (perhaps Miss Piggy from The Muppets!). Raising your awareness of your inner gremlin is important but it's just as important to belittle it and choose to throw its negative chatter away.

Step 4 - Set positive affirmations

Now that you are more aware of your negative beliefs it's important to set a series of positive affirmations to change them, over time, into positive statements or beliefs you hold about yourself.

Take 'confidence' as an example. It would be impractical to go from saying "I am unconfident in social situations" to "I am uber-confident in all social situations". The stepping stone approach enables you to make small but regular adjustments to bridge the gap.

So "I am unconfident in social situations" becomes:

"I am confident around my family." to:

"I have a friendly face and warm personality." to:

"I like going to new social events with someone I know already."

Work with one affirmation at a time and repeat it out loud when you wake up to start your day positively and just before you go to bed to help your subconscious mind process your new belief whilst you sleep.

Once you feel comfortable and confident with your affirmation write a new, more stretching affirmation and restart the process. It takes time to change beliefs so you must repeat your affirmations daily, as often as you can.

In the case of 'confidence', over time you'll believe you're more confident and there'll be evidence to support you. As a consequence, you'll become more confident in how you act and engage with other people.

Step 5 - Become intentional

Intentionality is not a skill that everyone is born with but it can be learnt. It is a choice between choosing to be acted upon and acting for yourself.

Realising that a belief (and its resultant behaviour) does not serve you well is incredibly empowering. Now you have a choice to do something about it.

Being intentional means that you are choosing to be more confident, be more open-minded, be a better communicator, be better at budgeting - whatever it is, you are making a decision to think a new way and move yourself forwards.

Rebecca Wells is a coach who specialises in working with expatriates.
If you believe you could be happier or feel that you could achieve more either personally or professionally, visit her website:
http://www.clearhorizoncoaching.com
You'll find more articles like this one and further information about how coaching can help you move forwards.

Moving Overseas With Your Family - How to Make It a Success

Moving overseas with a family can be an enormously successful experience - especially if you prepare thoroughly in advance. Well before making the move, many questions need to be asked and issues addressed to ensure the move for everyone is as trouble-free as possible.

Recruitment agencies help teachers find teaching jobs abroad. The company works, day-in, day-out with teachers who are moving overseas with their families and so can offer advice to all families moving abroad to work. Here is some of the advice offered to families who are preparing to move to an international job:

Make absolutely sure you know what your contract provides. Are all school fees covered for your children? Does the whole family, including your children, have medical coverage written into the contract? Is there anyone within the family who has an existing medical condition and will this be covered in the new health insurance?
Is accommodation provided and if so, is it appropriate for your family? How close is it to the children's school as well as to and from your place of work, and how easy is it to make these journeys? Are there any facilities in or near your accommodation suitable for children and families e.g. a swimming pool, play area, gym, park, garden, bike paths, etc.
Parents often underestimate the impact that an international move has on a child - of any age. Your children may need more support that you think; that will mean ongoing support too. The first few weeks are new and different which means they can be very exciting for children. It can be a few weeks later, when the reality of the move kicks in, that children can find most difficult and that's when they may need more of your help and understanding.
When you move, you may want to plan some things for the near future to help your whole family make the transition easily. This may include a visit from grandparents, another family member or close friends. Or a trip back home. This can end up being very important for children. Usually, after they've been back home once, that helps them to settle easier into their new surroundings. Or it could be an exciting holiday to explore more of your new country.
If you have teenage children, investigate the exam qualifications that will be available to them in their international school. Some international schools follow the British National Curriculum or do IGCSEs or follow the International Baccalaureate. The curriculum your teenager will be expected to follow and the qualifications they will be able to achieve may impact on the further and higher education opportunities available to them.
Don't forget teenagers can experience more problems with making a long-distance move than younger children as they will be losing contact with well-established friends and moving from environments that they are very familiar and secure with. Help them to keep the communication lines accessible between friends. Make phone, social networking and email communication a priority once you arrive in your new home.

Janice Ireland moved from the United Kingdom to work as a teacher in Kuwait when her daughter was a teenager. "She absolutely loved it!" says Janice. "Initially she didn't want to go because of leaving her friends so we agreed we would do a three month trial. It all helped to make the move much easier. She is much more internationally-minded because of this experience and has travelled more extensively as a result and experienced different countries, not just from the perspective of a holiday-maker but from actually living there."

http://www.findteachingjobsoverseas.co.uk provides services to teachers trained in countries with English as a first language. Particularly the UK and USA but also Australia, and New Zealand amongst others. Our website provides information to help find teaching jobs abroad or teaching jobs Europe.