A meaningful life may look simple from the outside, but from the inside it’s one of unimaginable riches.

The richest people in the world may have all that money can buy, but a meaningful life is not for sale. It’s possible that you, yes you, could build an internal life that rivals the riches of anyone alive today.

There are many ways to be rich in this world, and pursuing a meaningful life is one path with less competition and more reward than others. Everyone wants financial wealth, but most people who have it, are looking for ways to convert it into contentment, purpose, and simple happiness.

What they fail to see is that you can pursue these things directly, at much less cost, and unlock them through ordinary, everyday choices.

4 Everyday Choices That Make Life Meaningful

A richer life is within your reach when you make a few everyday choices.

1. Be a Creator, Not Just a Consumer

The buffet table of consumption available to us today is staggering. More people than ever are spending hours a day scrolling on their devices. The vast majority of the content on those devices is created by just a few people, with everyone else passively consuming. While it might be fun to scroll, scrolling is not your life’s purpose—you are made for more than that. Life’s greatest meaning-makers all require creating: start a family, grow a company, make art, serve others. The choice is counter-culture, and it starts with putting down your phone.

2. Trust Your Values, Not Your Feelings

The last few generations seem more guided by their feelings than ever. Compared to the past, when concepts of duty, responsibility, and honor pushed us to act against how we felt, today we’re more focused on the here and now. Not everything about that old order was better, but in some ways we’ve become slaves to our emotions, unable to do anything unless we feel like it—and let’s be honest, we rarely feel like doing hard things. Every time you choose to put aside your feelings to live in accordance with a deeply held value, you are making your life richer with meaning, and the world a better place.

3. Treat Ordinary Work With Extraordinary Care

Almost anything we do can be infused with greater meaning simply by choosing to care more. The smallest deeds and the tiniest acts are powerful when the intent behind them is to do them well. While there is some up-front friction to doing good work that keeps it from being “natural,” the satisfaction you get from really trying is greater than nearly anything else life has on offer besides relationships. The best part is, you can try it for yourself. By trying harder, you care more, and the more you care, the more you develop affection for the work itself. It’s an upward spiral of emotions that anyone can experience for themselves in relatively short order.

4. Make the Call and Schedule a Date

The greatest artwork our civilization has ever created, from books to paintings and music to movies, all testify to the centrality of relationships in the human experience. Put simply, relationships are what bring life meaning. Your relationships with your family, friends, neighbors, and creator have long been the pillars of a meaningful life. We all want these things, but compared to the conveniences and comforts of our entertainment, they require effort to maintain. I’m here to say, the juice is worth the squeeze. A meaningful life helps you to understand why you’re here and what you’re doing, and it all starts with staying connected with those you love. Go ahead and call that friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with.

Meaning vs. Money

The funny thing about our modern culture is how much we’ve elevated financial wealth as the greatest measure of success. The one thing money has going for it is how easy it is to measure, but besides that, it has many shortfalls.

For one, it’s an intermediate good. Money is only useful for buying things you actually enjoy. Nobody wants dollar bills for their own sake. Another shortfall is that it’s hard to have enough. Very few people ever find satisfaction in the amount of money they have, always wanting just a bit more.

Those qualities don’t hold meaning. The things that add meaning to your life are inherently satisfying in themselves—creation, friendship, good work—and aren’t prone to the hedonic treadmill the way other forms of consumption are.

Best of all is that anyone can add more meaning to their lives, no matter who they are or what talents they possess. That’s the goal: to open our eyes to the everyday choices we make right now to make life richer than we ever imagined.