One of the most frequent questions that I face in my daily life when I am asked about what I do, is "what is life coaching?" I normally give my short answer so as not to bore the hell out of the person who asked the question! I say, "life coaching is a one-on-one sessions in which I help people to succeed in any area they want to move forward in." Yet from the eyes and head movement of the recipient which is followed by something like "hmm, interesting!!", I understand that this was not interesting at all to him/her.

This is understandable as the benefits of life coaching in a place where this discipline is not known at all cannot be caught in social chit chatting environment. Many of my clients started to grasp the benefits of life coaching and who began to understand what is life coaching, when they participated in my workshop which is called iDecode.

iDecode is workshop based on life coaching techniques and helps people through a self discovery journey to realize their life purpose and to begin to understand their main role in this life. Since iDecode is based on life coaching techniques, the participants start to realize that this approach can help them in any of their life areas, and this is when some of them actually ask to begin their individual journey through the one-on-one life coaching sessions.

The intention of this article is to try to answer the question "what is life coaching?" To begin to answer this question we need to understand that life coaching is a process. Like any other process, life coaching has a beginning and an end. Although each life coaching session has a beginning and an end, yet it should not be expected that one life coaching session is enough to succeed in a certain life area.

We all know that success comes after work; therefore, to realize any success it is imperative that we work to achieve the necessary goals that would eventually lead us to the success that we seek. Accordingly, and based on this explanation, the life coaching process starts by defining two main things; the first aspect that we need to define is the life area that we want to work on. The second aspect is to define what is it that we want to achieve in this area that would make us feel the success that we are searching for. Without defining these two aspects the life coaching process cannot begin. 

Some clients have these aspects well defined and ready. Other clients might need more than one session to define these aspects. The client needs to be patient with himself/herself and not to rush themselves. We need to remember that success is not realized in the first step, yet a beautiful sense of achievement can be felt at each stage. You cannot imagine the happiness of a client once he/she realize the area that they want to work on. The eyes start to sparkle and the voice becomes full of enthusiasm and keenness to start working.

Once the life area and the objective are defined, we set up the indicators that will help us realize whether we are on the right track or not throughout our journey. From then on, the life coaching sessions keep on going to build up the achievements, and to overcome any obstacles that come our way until we achieve the objective the we set out at the beginning of the life coaching process.

Achieving our goal is the end of the life coaching process and is output of the efforts and time that have been invested. At this stage the client might end the life coaching sessions or choose to begin another process in another life area and objective, or choose another objective in the same life area. This way the client will live a life moving from one achievement to the next and from one success to the next.

Life coaching is not:

- For venting out, although some venting might happen during a session.

- For finding a crying shoulder, although some high emotions can be felt and expressed during a session.

- For exploring the past as life coaching always looks at the future, although in some instances we might look at the past to copy certain success stories.

- For solving problems, but for turning the problem into an objective and start working towards that objective.

Some people have a certain mindset where they tell themselves that their life is full of problems and once they are done with them they might consider life coaching. I would advise those people to change the mindset totally and to stop thinking about problems and to start turning those problems into positive objectives.

I would like to end this article by giving another short reply to the question "what is life coaching?" Life coaching is where you will find the support and motivation to achieve any success that you desire." I say to myself and to other that I am in the business of helping people to succeed.