3 things that will hinder you in 2017

Here are three things that will make a mockery of whatever 'word' you received, so that you'll be right back where you started, come 31 December 2017:

1. Holding onto the same mindset, like it''s the solid rock on which you stand

See, eh … no matter how many people lay hands (and legs) and pour olive/anointing/coconut/groundnut oil on you, it won''t matter if your mindset remains the same as it was in 2016.

Or the year before that. It's actually insane to expect a different result, when you haven't changed any of the things you did before. If that (wo)man was abusing or cheating on you in 2016, they will not change in 2017 – except for the worse.

If they were gifting you hospital visits, they will ensure you have a permanent ward in the hospital, this year. If you hold on to the same horrid, unproductive friends, relationships and collaborations you had in 2016, your life will remain the same in 2017.

2. Time-wasting entitlement mentality

2016 was a year in which many people suffered from an overload of entitlement mentality … that should totally be a real, clinical diagnosis. It didn't go down well in 2016 and that won't change this year.

Entitled people are ingrates. They are the ones who waste others' time, resources and everything else; yet expect more of the same. There was a time when I would hear a woman's cry of distress (even the faux brand) and I would react.

Only for the woman to go back to her abuser, develop a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome, only to expect me to leave everything for her sake when her abuser pummels her again. My eyes don clear. My time and other resources are not for the ungrateful or the weak.

I am better than that. I woke up on the first day of 2017, to see a group message I'd been sent on Instagram – about a woman whose husband had stabbed her in the nether regions. I just deleted myself from that sorry excuse for a conversation, without a word.

This woman's husband had been beating her, but she remained. When you tell some women to leave an abusive man, they will call you a “bitter, single, home-wrecking feminist”. Refer to #1 above.

3. Laziness

Whether it is physical or intellectual, laziness is a turn-off. Unless someone is a thief, nobody will bring you a bag of money for nothing in 2017. If they do (in this economy that is not smiling with anybody), rest assured that EFCC is on their trail.

And they will carry you, too. No, that thing of “reaping where you did not sow”, “taking over houses that you did not build” and other laughable rhetoric does not happen in real life.

No, Dangote (and other wealthy people who worked for their money) will not suddenly die and leave you money or property; don't be silly. You are not entitled to the results of another person's legitimate hustle. Any prophet who tells you otherwise, needs psychiatric help.

See #2 above. If you don't work, you gonna starve in 2017. And that will probably leave you a lot worse off than you were at the end of 2016.

Chioma Nnani is an award-winning author, who also contributes to business, lifestyle and literary publications. One of Africa's most fearless storytellers, she is a 2016 CREATIVE AFRICAN Awards finalist in the category of “Best Fiction Writer”, and a DIVAS OF COLOUR 2016 finalist.