This article deals with the intimate negotiations leading up to the decision to start an adult training program. Analysis of these negotiations reveals the ambitions that are being pursued, and thus allows us to detail how the desired futures are seen by the individuals concerned as improvements in their life situation. We show that these ambitions are negotiated so as to make them acceptable to the individuals themselves, but also to various significant others and to the “social self.” Such negotiation thus brings into play standards and rules relating to the desired balance between private and professional time. We present three ambitions, each representative of a specific model for the negotiation of social temporalities.