A Concrete Way To "Manifest Thoughts"

There's a famous truism that "thoughts manifest," usually followed by "you create your own reality." While I'm not sure that I completely agree with the latter because I think it discounts the sobering truth that not everyone has the same systematic privileges and advantages in life, I do think there is something to be said for planning for the future in a deliberate and strategic way.

Highly successful people are continually coming up with new ideas, particularly for creative professionals whose livelihood depends on this. "Necessity is the mother of invention," as they say! Therefore, if the goal was, for example, to generate more income/revenue, you could draw a mind map to visualize possible solutions to this problem.

Some of the benefits to creating a mind map include:

1) Taking effective notes while in the research phase of a given project. For example, I'm currently working on a one person show about the hilarity and complications of dating as an atypical women. Some of my research has included making a spreadsheet of possible casting directors that accept show postcards/unsolicited submissions, as well as making another spreadsheet of venues that might be appropriate.

2) Having the ability to visualize your ideas on paper