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I tend to have a surprising amount of luck simply finding money on the ground. I’ve found quarters, dollar bills, fives, and even twenties on a surprisingly regular basis, just sticking out of gutters or half-buried under leaves.

Part of the reason is that, thanks to a lot of time spent hunting for morel mushrooms and geodes in the past, I’m pretty good at observing the ground for things out of place. Another part of the reason is that I genuinely enjoy walking and exploring and examining things when I walk – it’s just a natural hobby of mine.

On top of that, I like finding $20 bills in my own life. If I can find a way to save $20 on my grocery store visit, for example, I view it as a pretty nice victory, one that I feel good about for the rest of the day.

The end result of all of this is a sequence of small windfalls in my life.

Of all of the essays and short articles I have ever read, the one that has had the greatest impact on me is Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you’ve read my “Pieces of Inspiration” column before, you’ve probably seen me quote from it several times – and for good reason. Every time I read it, which is about once a month or so, it reveals something new to me that leaves me thinking.

Self-Reliance was originally published as part of a book of essays by Emerson in 1841, which means that the language and cultural references are just old enough that it can be a bit difficult for modern eyes to read.

One of my favorite posts I’ve ever written for The Simple Dollar was called “The Longest Night.” In it, I discussed the day that I hit financial bottom.

It was an afternoon in April 2006. As I sat down to pay some bills, I looked at the balance of our checking account and realized that we simply did not have enough cash on hand to pay those bills. Even worse, our credit cards were near their maximum and didn’t give us enough breathing room there, either. We simply did not have enough money to make ends meet.

At that time, Sarah and I were proud parents of an infant boy (he’s eight years old now). We lived in a rather small two bedroom apartment in which one of the rooms was a combination nursery/library/computer room, leaving the remaining rooms as a bathroom, a tiny bedroom, and a combination kitchen/living room area. It might have measured 500 square feet, all told.

Once a month (or so), I’ll share a dozen things that have inspired me to greater personal, professional, and financial success in my life. I hope they bring similar success to your life.

Quite a few people have written to me requesting that I bring back the old “Ten Pieces of Inspiration” series. I’ve decided to change it up a little. Rather than “stretching” to fit in ten pieces every week (which I did sometimes), I’m going to save up pieces until I have a dozen or so good ones. I hope to post this series on roughly a monthly basis, depending heavily on the pieces of inspiration that I find.

Some of these pieces may be a bit longer, both in terms of what I’m sharing and my comments and thoughts on them. As before, I’ll save my comments until after I’ve shared the item that inspired me.

1. Renata Saleci on our unhealthy obsession with choice