It’s common practice to set New Year’s goals and resolutions that will most likely be lost by the time mid-February rolls around. Instead of resolutions, this year, making an “ins” and “outs” list is all the rage.

An “ins” and “outs” list consists of habits, items and values that you either want to harness for the year or relinquish. Some items on the list can be quite literal, like peanut butter. On the other hand, some items are more intangible, such as prioritizing relationships that benefit your mental health.

The Santa Clara staff created our own “ins” and “outs” list. Some items that you see here are literal, while others require some analysis. For example, oatmeal genuinely represents oatmeal–not much room for interpretation. Or, cigarettes–save your lungs this year. Other items on the list are symbolic of values and practices that members of the staff want to nourish or eliminate this year.

For example, a bag of uncooked pasta might mean cooking at-home meals, not necessarily swearing off pasta for a year. How sad would that be? With that said, the images you see here are up for interpretation, regarding both whether they are an “in” or an “out” and whether they are literal or represent something beyond the item itself.

We have decided not to label the two categories. Instead, what is someone’s “in” can be viewed as somebody else’s “out.” An “ins” versus “outs” list can polarize what is good versus bad, so instead we invite you to view these images, reflect and choose what resonates with your own goals for 2024.

This might mean that what is on your “in” list for one part of the year ends up being an “out” later on. I think that is okay–part of an “ins” and “outs” list should be enjoying what additions and changes are made to our list throughout the year as we learn and grow.

The New Year can be a time to reset, but resolutions can often invite destructive self-criticism. Will you stick to your resolutions? Will you keep the promises you made to yourself? Will you be better than you were last year?

Instead of partaking in this type of binary thinking, The Santa Clara staff hopes that you, along with us, can focus on a growth mindset this year, finding items on this list that will help us be better people than we were yesterday.