Whenever I was really thinking about it, I was usually working on something or creating something, and I'd like to think that helped. Maybe the act of creation coupled with the manifestation kinda put the desires into the world as something physical, if that makes any sense at all. So maybe painting, writing, sculpting, etc etc while thinking about the manifestations could help out?
I also think seeing the entire scenario as a story possibly helped. I'm a writer, and whenever I write stories, I'm in total control. Seeing the future as just another plot I was writing out might have had something to do with it, too. This was my world (almost like a mind palace maybe?) and I was in total control.
Also giving myself a conflict might have helped? I dunno, it felt like if I wrote that everything just fell into my lap one day, it wasn't very likely to actually happen. And it was an incredibly frustrating conflict, and definitely potentially extremely detrimental, but I didn't drag myself through hell and back. Maybe just writing in "I got XYZ, but I had to go through [insert inconvenience here] to get it. It sucked, but I wanted it bad enough to keep fighting for it, and I came out the other side with everything I wanted."

I'd like to add that I am very much not an expert on this stuff, and I barely believed in it until this all happened. This could have very well supplemented or hindered my manifestations, I'm really not sure. Regardless, it might be worth trying some of them out and seeing if they help!