Ambitious Year

‘What else should I do in the next year,’ a tall brunette stood in a bright glass office on the top floor of a skyscraper. The sun was reaching its zenith, and with the remaining rays it illuminated a wide white board, to which she attached multicoloured notes with inscriptions, various photographs, as well as hand-drawn figures and signs. Bearing her weight to her back foot, she stared at the vision board, touching her lower lip with her index finger. With narrowed eyes, she carefully studied the product of her brainstorming. Then, clicking her heels, she stepped back a few meters to assess the work done from a distance. She sat neatly on the edge of the table, cross-legged, in her red pencil skirt. Slipping her delicately styled curls over her left shoulder, she broke into a pleased smile.

'How could I forget, I wanted to go to Peru next summer,' she went to the blackboard and added “Peru” in the vacation column.

At that moment, there was a soft knock on the door. 'Come in,' said the woman. The door opened cautiously and the frightened face of a young girl with her hair tightly tied in a ponytail appeared uncertainly in the doorway.

'May I come in?' she said in a low, trembling voice.

'Yes, Doubt, as I've already told you,' said the owner of the office firmly, returning to work with the vision board.

Doubt walked awkwardly into the office and looked at the blackboard. Her hands trembled, and she involuntarily gasped, immediately covering her mouth with her hands.

'Ambition, are you sure we can handle all of this?' Doubt asked timidly.

Ambition turned a triumphant look to Doubt and said proudly, 'I haven’t even finished yet, it’s only a half.'

'A half?' a voice came from the sofa at the other end of the office, on which a girl with disheveled hair and crumpled pajamas was stretching lazily while awake. 'You must be joking.'

'Shut up, Laziness, I'm not kidding. We have a whole year to do it all. This is more than enough,' Ambition said in the same confident voice. Turning away from the board, she walked straight in the direction of the yawning Laziness and pulled the pillow out from under her head.

'Hey!' Laziness shouted offended, almost falling off the sofa.

'Stop sleeping, it’s already noon!' Ambition said sternly.

'Just noon!' said Laziness, sitting on the edge of the sofa. Doubt, meanwhile, studied with horror the vision board drawn up by Ambition.

'You know how much we would have done already if you hadn’t slept for so long. I’ve already made up half the board,' Ambition continued.

'And what's the point of this board if we don't do half of it all,' Laziness said indifferently.

'And why is that?' asked Ambition.

'Because we're too lazy,' Laziness laughed.

'Ambition,' Doubt intervened, 'Are you sure we should ask the boss for a raise? I don't think we are sufficiently prepared for a higher position. What if he fires us?'

'He can't fire us for asking for a raise,' Ambition began to be irritated by the presence of Laziness and Doubt. 'And anyway, why do you constantly ruin my plans? No matter what decision I make, you always don’t like something,' Ambition sat in a chair, arms crossed over her chest, 'I’ve already tired of you as much as possible.'

'You're just too positive about things,' Doubt said, trying to smooth things over, 'We're more realistic.'

'More pessimistic,' Ambition growled. Tapping her fingers on the table, Ambition picked up the phone and began dialing.

'Whom do you call?' Doubt asked uncertainly.

'Someone who will support my point of view. There are two of you, and I am alone, so we will not make a fair decision,' Ambition answered.

'Hello?' she heard a confident cheerful voice from the handset.

'Please, come to my office, I need your help,' Ambition said.

'What happened, Laziness and Doubt again?' a slightly sarcastic voice asked.

'As usual, you know,' Ambition smiled to herself and hung up. A few minutes later, the door opened and a young girl in a business suit with light but expressive make-up and flowing straight hair entered the office.

'What, they decided to break off all our plans for next year again?' The invited guest asked briskly, shifting her gaze first at Doubt, then at Laziness.

'Are you going to convince us again that we can do everything and have time for that?' Laziness asked sarcastically.

'Of course, as usual,' the girl smiled.

'Please, take a seat, Determination,' said Ambition, pointing at the empty seat to her left, 'You too, please, take a seat,' she said to Laziness and Doubt.

Doubt crouched to the right of Ambition, while Laziness slowly moved to the other end of the table and plopped down opposite.

'I don't understand what to discuss here,' Laziness said.

'Well, the year ends, and at the end of each year we sum up its results and draw up a map of desires for the next year. Or rather, I compose it, and you always don’t like something about it,' Ambition said irritably.

'Of course we don’t like it, have you seen how much you have planned in total? And when are we supposed to relax, sit back and disappear aimlessly on social networks?' Laziness asked. 'Do you ever think of me? I don't think you respect me at all.'

'Don't start, there's always a place for you in my plans,' Ambition replied.

'But I think that in general the plans are not bad, but it is unlikely that we will be able to do them all,' Doubt said quietly. 'Get a promotion, enroll in a dance school, read fifty books, take a refresher course, skydive,' Doubt went on to list all the ambitious goals for next year, 'And on top of that, we still have time to take a vacation! I highly doubt that.'

'Don't forget about us doing nothing!' Added Laziness.

Determination, meanwhile, listened attentively and wrote down all the comments in her notebook. As everyone gave their opinion on next year's goals, Determination took the floor.

'I believe that all your wishes can be taken into account and a consensus can be found,' she said confidently. 'Every year history repeats itself and we always find a solution. This time we can do it too.'

'And what do you suggest?' asked Ambition.

'I propose each of you to make a fifteen-point list for the next year and mark the five most important points to you. Then you show me these lists, and we discuss which of the less important items you are willing to concede to each other. In this way, we can take into account the wishes of each of you,' Determination said.

'But last year we made a list of ten items,' Laziness said, 'why are there fifteen this time?'

'Did you see what a huge visual board Ambition made? You'll have to put in some effort.'