This chapter offers a conceptualization of knowledge about serious leisure time as an essential part of human activity aimed at personal development. In the first section after the introduction, the author discusses the framework between serious and casual leisure, where the former is a more deliberate activity aimed at improving valuable skills, while the latter, by contrast, responds to frivolous, momentary activities. An accurate description of serious leisure time as a system of rewards and qualities is offered.
The next chapter assesses the possibility of an individual’s lifestyle in which serious leisure is feasible. One of the primary thoughts here is the recognition that an optimal lifestyle is dynamic and dependent on the mood of the age. The following chapters discuss the quality-of-life phenomenon (and its relationship to volunteerism). It is pointed out that achieving a desired quality of life is not a spontaneous accident but the result of planning and development.