Maura Sweeney: Living Happy Inside Out | Personal Growth | Influence | The Power of Happiness
Jun 10, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
Is there life outside your comfort zone? You bet! Getting there is a journey, but the trips - and falls - along the way are worth the life rewards found on the other side.
Maura SweeneyHost
Well, we all have them, whether it's where we live, who we know, or what we do.
But what happens when our need to stay in a comfort zone keeps us from venturing out? What happens when the comfort zone becomes boring, irrelevant, limiting, and even restrictive? Sometimes we can age out of comfort zones, like a job.
Who even uses typewriters anymore? And for that matter, what is a typewriter? It's a dinosaur of a piece of office equipment, and a clerk typist is no longer recognized as a job.
Well, how about living in a neighborhood that's well past its prime, whose denizens have taken flight and whose streets are now crime-ridden? In that case, the old home sweet homestead could become anything but.
Well, maybe you used to find solace in baking cookies, and now you have a health issue restricting your sugar.
And if you're a guy whose waist size has grown from a 34 to a 38, you are definitely not comfortable in that old comfort zone of a too-tight pair of pants.
Well, my comfort zone was often seeing myself as an observer rather than a participant.
But I longed to be fully functional, uh, to be a fully functional body that could readily join with others in physical fun.
Well, my upcoming tale, called Dance or Die, illustrates how, while proving totally uncomfortable and even downright scary, the ultimate journey out of our comfort zones can bring tremendous self-growth and new forms of self-expression.
And don't underestimate how moving out of a staid, old comfort zone can't add youth, vitality, and more than that, a smile, a genuine smile to your life.
Well, best of all, moving out of comfort zones can make us very, very happy, even if it feels like we're dying on the way there.
Well, we all have them, whether it's where we live, who we know, or what we do.
But what happens when our need to stay in a comfort zone keeps us from venturing out? What happens when the comfort zone becomes boring, irrelevant, limiting, and even restrictive? Sometimes we can age out of comfort zones, like a job.
Who even uses typewriters anymore? And for that matter, what is a typewriter? It's a dinosaur of a piece of office equipment, and a clerk typist is no longer recognized as a job.
Well, how about living in a neighborhood that's well past its prime, whose denizens have taken flight and whose streets are now crime-ridden? In that case, the old home sweet homestead could become anything but.
Well, maybe you used to find solace in baking cookies, and now you have a health issue restricting your sugar.
And if you're a guy whose waist size has grown from a 34 to a 38, you are definitely not comfortable in that old comfort zone of a too-tight pair of pants.
Well, my comfort zone was often seeing myself as an observer rather than a participant.
But I longed to be fully functional, uh, to be a fully functional body that could readily join with others in physical fun.
Well, my upcoming tale, called Dance or Die, illustrates how, while proving totally uncomfortable and even downright scary, the ultimate journey out of our comfort zones can bring tremendous self-growth and new forms of self-expression.
And don't underestimate how moving out of a staid, old comfort zone can't add youth, vitality, and more than that, a smile, a genuine smile to your life.
Well, best of all, moving out of comfort zones can make us very, very happy, even if it feels like we're dying on the way there.
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