The New Year's resolution that made a big difference for Meghan Markle.

The last 12 months have been fairly significant for Meghan Markle. In 2018, the former actress married Prince Harry in one of the world’s most-watched weddings, became a Duchess, travelled around the world (most notably, to Australia), announced her pregnancy and may or may not have started a number of royal feuds (joking).

If the Duchess were setting her New Year’s resolutions for 2019, you might expect them to go something like this:

• Name baby something bizarre so that everyone stops talking about palace gossip;
• Organise a family gathering where everyone agrees to chill and stay out of each other’s lives;
• Teach Prince George swear words when no one is looking.

But according to her blog The Tig, which has since been shut down, Meghan Markle doesn’t do New Year’s resolutions.

In January 2016, Markle wrote that well into her thirties, she’d make exactly the same New Year’s resolutions, and routinely fail at them.

All the ways Meghan Markle is a Wonder Woman.

“Run a marathon. Stop biting my nails. Stop swearing. Re-learn French. These make my New Year’s resolution list nearly (AKA actually every) single year,” the then-34-year-old wrote.

“The marathon hasn’t happened. The swearing comes in lulls triggered by being overworked or feeling mighty cheeky after a couple drinks,” she added. “Then there’s the French – a language I studied through high school and then lost as I immersed myself in speaking Spanish with the Argentinians during my stint in Buenos Aires. I have put my little Rosetta Stone headset in my eager ears every year, resolving to do interviews en français, but much to my chagrin, it hasn’t stuck.”

“And when it comes to the biting of the nails – well, it still happens with a turbulent flight or a stressful day. It’s unladylike. But then again, so is the swearing. Dammit.”

So she decided to change her approach. “This year, I resolve not to have a resolution,” she wrote.

“For this new year, the only thing I aim to do is to approach life playfully. To laugh and enjoy, to keep my standards high but my level of self-acceptance higher.”

“My New Year’s resolution is to leave room for magic. To make my plans, and be okay if they sometimes break. To set my goals, but to be open to change.”

This is where we pause for a moment.

Because it was mid-2016 when Markle met Prince Harry, which probably wasn’t part of her plan. And while it’s impossible to know what she personally values in her own life, many might say the romance is ‘magic’.

Regardless of whether Markle's new-found philosophy had a tangible impact on her 2016, it's likely a good one to remember.

Many of us have distorted thinking patterns about changing our behaviours, taking an all or nothing approach and being hard on our shortcomings. But leaving room for magic, being okay with broken plans, and being open to change, is an anti-resolution we can all take on board.