ABSTRACT
This chapter explores why this tripartite balance is important in the twenty-first century. It begins with a discussion of lifestyle, proceeding from there to the ideas of optimal leisure lifestyle and the discretionary time commitment. The chapter discusses several personal strategies for achieving balance across the domains of work, leisure, and obligation. Reducing work refers to cutting back on the number of hours of employment, and as such, includes shifting to part-time work. Although voluntary simplicity may include reducing working hours, as was noted in the preceding two sections, work reduction can be a balance strategy of its own. The strategy centers on finding devotee work, on achieving balance in a lifestyle in which the individual already has a job, albeit of the non-devotee variety. Retirement, in positive sociology, refers to people intentionally leaving work as their means of livelihood.
