Journal № 012 — I’m rich.
I am rich. I can control my time, and therefore, I am rich.
When someone says they are rich, the first instinct is often to measure it. How much money do you have? How many cars? What’s your salary? What’s the value of your house? Society equals wealth with numbers and possessions, but for me, being rich has nothing to do with financial metrics. It’s not about digits in a bank account or trophies of success parked in a garage. Richness, to me, is something far easier — a change in perspective I discovered during my recovery and also self-discovery.
This realization didn’t come easily. It wasn’t the kind of wisdom I stumbled upon while scrolling on my phone or flipping through books. It was born out of pain, reflection, and the quiet hours spent piecing myself back together after my accident. For so long, I believed in the narrative that wealth was external, that success was about accumulating, striving, and achieving. But the more I examined my life, the more I saw the hollowness of that chase.
I decided to redefine what being rich means for me. And when I peeled back the layers of what I truly valued, one thing stood out above all else: time.
Time is the most precious currency we have, and yet it’s the one we are most careless with. We spend it mindlessly — on things we don’t care about, with people who drain us, in jobs that suffocate us — all because we think we have no choice. But here’s my truth: if you can control your time, you are rich. You are truly, deeply, unimaginably wealthy.
I am fortunate to have found a way to control my time. It wasn’t immediate, and it wasn’t easy, but by reclaiming my time, I unlocked a happiness I didn’t even know was possible. For me, it means being intentional. It’s about designing a life where my time aligns with my values, where every hour feels like an investment in my growth, my relationships, and my peace.
This doesn’t mean I live in some utopian bubble of endless free time. Life still demands responsibility and work. But the difference is choice. I’ve stopped letting the clock dictate my worth. I’ve stopped chasing someone else’s definition of success.
Now, I choose how to spend my mornings, my afternoons, my evenings. I pour my time into projects that excite me, into relationships that fulfill me, into moments that allow me to breathe deeply and feel alive. I’m no longer enslaved by the rush to “keep up.”
Happiness isn’t something I wait for anymore — it’s something I create in the present moment. And isn’t that the richest life one can lead?
So yes, I am rich. Not in dollars or assets, but in time, in freedom, in the quiet, profound joy of a life lived on my own terms. This kind of wealth isn’t flashy or loud. You won’t see it in a photo or a headline. But it’s real, and it’s mine.
And the beauty of this kind of richness? It’s something anyone can have. All it takes is the courage to redefine what wealth means for you. The moment you stop letting the world decide your value, the moment you reclaim your time, you, too, will be rich.
-cb