'Old times' never come back and I suppose it's just as well. What comes back...
Left to themselves things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy's First...
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
My joking answer to this question is that I leave a bowl of milk out on the back porch every night for the Idea Fairy. In the morning the milk is gone and there's a brand-new shiny idea by the bowl.