prayer mountain

1.find a good location to pray
2.get into your prayer position
3.prepare for prayer
4.begin the prayer
5.end the prayer

i was praying for a friends dad last night. and it sort of hit me...is there a "wrong" way to pray. i mean, i know how i pray...and i know how Jesus taught us to pray and such, but i guess i moreso got curious to see how the rest of the world prayed.
what i got is a whole lot of steps. do this, do that, sit here, eat this. don't say this, remain focused for at least this long. it's ridiculous. YES, structure is good. but, some sources made it seem like God wont listen unless you're doing it "just like this"

apparently there are certain ways to "get the best results out of your prayer" or "getting your prayers answered" i guess the big step here, is to focus, or meditate on the end result. so much to the point where you are getting mental images and pictures.
i've been trusting God for a few years of my life. for such a long time i wanted dreams and visions..i wanted mental pictures; but i never really got them. so basically. i'm being told my prayers can't get answered because i can't recieve a God ordained image of what the end result will be. HOW DEPRESSING
once the mental images comes, we pray until we have assurance that God has fulfilled what we're praying for.
my gosh.
i do believe in faith. and how all things are possible. but if i had to sit and pray until i was positive God had moved in the situation the way i was praying for Him to, i think i'd still be praying for my dead goldfish to come back to life from 6 years
ago.
i guess i sort of get it. like focus on what the point really is. are we praying for someones knee to be better, or is it something much bigger. maybe all the steps aren't so whacked out.
i don't konw. i'm just confusing myself.
al i really know, is Father longs for intimacy with us. and i really think that prayer can be such a key part of reaching that.
it shouldn't be this much of a mess in my mind. and it's not. i just can't put into words what i'm thinking.

I have given Jacob's generation the key of David, intimacy
To open up the doorway to the nations, and release
Revelation, of intimacy, with me