A lifelong learner, Diana holds a multitude of academic honors, certificates and degrees. She was busy pursuing her hard-earned career as an attorney and checking all the boxes that society tells us we need to feel successful in life. And still, she was silently carrying what she describes as, "quiet desperation." She felt inner guilt and anxiety because beneath having obtained all the things society says brings happiness, she still felt unfulfilled and unhappy. Within her remained a quiet but determined voice that kept saying there was more to life than checking the boxes society sets out for us.
“For at least ten years, I have known I had a passion in the world to help people and to create happiness…I knew back then that there was something different. I was waking up. I didn’t know what that meant. Over the years, I became the one who was putting out the free posts and trying to motivate people and getting the certifications and taking the programs and wanting to do something else but still afraid and still staying in my little lawyer bubble, So I’d have the persona online like I was trying to do the things – but not really doing it.”
Following her inner call to pursue her greater purpose, she went on a coaching retreat with Steph. Immediately she was entrenched in the deep resistance she’d been battling for a decade between her logical mind and her soul's unexplainable wisdom. By design, the retreat would bring her face to face with the decision she'd been avoiding. Would she allow herself to pursue the murky call of her soul to help others or once again fall back on the unfulfilling life she’d worked so hard to build that met the expectations placed on her by society?
“You [Steph] invited me to Costa Rica…the first day I cried…I called my husband. I told my husband, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m coming home. This is so stupid! What was I thinking?’… But you know what, that’s resistance at its best, right? When we are up-leveling, when we are doing something that is so important to our soul, that lower part of our brain jumps in with every reason why you are doing the stupidest thing possible.
We had a conversation…and I’m making a real case about how maybe I just haven’t really focused on being the best lawyer possible yet and I should really just work on that and if I just get that then maybe I’ll be happy…Same story I’ve been doing to myself forever.
And you were like, ‘Sure, OK…So, this tap to coach and this tap to help people doesn’t go away. So you have to decide if you are willing to walk away from it.’
And in that moment I knew that if I walked away and tried to stay in law, it would be at the expense of my soul…. You can put yourself in that pretty packaging and be the lawyer [and keep checking all the boxes]… But that is nothing compared to being in alignment with who you truly are...You will get to the end of your life and wonder if you did it right.”
Even after deciding to pursue the call to help others create happiness in their lives, and move forward in working with Steph, Diana would have to face another significant barrier she'd created for herself. Diana felt for so long that she wasn’t ready to follow the call of her soul. It was not as clear as going to school for a trade and then working in that trade. And even when she gained clarity on how to follow her calling through becoming a coach, she felt she needed a set program or method to give her clients before she could start coaching. She felt maybe she needed to be more prepared or be clearer on how she could bring the most value to clients.
“I had some clients here and there...I never felt ready...I knew I was ‘ready’ when I decided that I wasn’t willing to wait to be ready anymore. I just don’t think that there is ever a ‘ready’ for anything. If we continue to be getting ready to get ready to be ready, we’re just never going to change. We're never going to do anything. We're never going to answer the calls that are in our heart. And then we’re gonna put ourselves on anti-depressants. We’re gonna focus on getting thinner. We’re gonna focus on getting the guy. And we’re gonna do all these other things because we're just not answering because we think we’re just not ready. But you’re ready by virtue of the fact that God gave you this calling…You can be waiting to get ready for a really, really long time.”
Having overcome anxiety, depression and an eating disorder by allowing herself to align to who she really was and alleviate her own sadness and anxiety, Diana had gained what she needed to help others. Coupled with her extensive academic background spanning psychology and wellness, she had the skill set to guide her clients. She was well-prepared to help women who were in the very same place she had allowed herself to feel stuck in for so many years. And as she worked with more clients, Diana found that the primary skill she uses is being present, without a program, set plan or steps, so she can be flexible and dig into the work with the client that they need most at that time.
Diana has pushed through incredible resistance and self-imposed barriers since her decision to be ready and answer the call to become a coach. She pushed herself far out of her comfort zone in doing Facebook live videos to begin connecting with prospective clients who also felt there was something missing in their lives. And it has all been worth more than she dared to dream possible just a short time ago. She is exhilarated in being able to help women feel happy simply by identifying and removing the barriers they set in front of answering their own call and aligning to their authentic self.
“Every time you do something that’s a little bit scary, you chip away at social norms and find more of who you are - who your true self is. You get happier.”
Today, less than a year later, Diana is living in fulfillment, happiness and alignment with her purpose, and has a full schedule of clients. She is a Happiness Coach using Positive Psychology, Authenticity, Thought Training, ACIM & her clients’ own inner guide. Diana has built a base of highly loyal and supportive clients. This may be attributed in part to the inner passion and personal experience she brings to everyone she works with, whether as a personal or business coach.
Diana is on a mission to help women remove the same kind of quiet desperation from their inner lives that she lived with for so long, and bring forth their authentic self to live in the pure freedom of aligning to true happiness. She knows what it feels like to have everything society says creates happiness and success and still live in despair because of an underlying emptiness. She knows firsthand that checking society’s boxes for success is nothing compared to answering the inner tap to live in alignment with your true self.
“I just love happiness. I want everyone to be happy. I could talk about that all day!”
Connect with Diana via message on her Diana Tulumba Facebook page.
Don’t miss Diana’s sage advice for being single and her personal favs book list in the full interview.