During an airplane flight, there is constant communication that involves your plane. The air traffic controllers clear your pilot for takeoff, and later at another tower, they will clear him for landing. They stay in touch the whole time between the takeoff and the landing. There is more to the flight than just the beginning and the end. The pilot needs to know if there are other planes nearby or of bad weather that demands a change of plans. It's good the pilot doesn't turn off communication with the tower after he takes off.
Galatians 5:25 from the Bible says, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." This verse is talking about the internal guidance system we received the day we opened our lives to Jesus as our personal Savior. This system is the Holy Spirit of God living in our bodies and in our personalities. All day long, He tries to tell us the next thing God wants us to do, avoid, change, or decide. That's why it says "keep in step with the Spirit." We never know where the Lord might want to lead us next.
There is a problem with us busy people. We check in with the tower when we take off in the morning, and then don't usually check in again until the end of the day's flight. As the day heats up, we tend to turn off our radios, take off our headsets, and make a hundred little decisions on our own without consulting the Lord. We get cut off from the tower, so we end up in a lot of turbulence and sometimes get off course. We crash into people and we make unnecessary mistakes. Following Jesus means listening to the Spirit's directing all day long, not just at the beginning and the end.
Maybe you are a straight ahead, go for it, make a schedule, make a plan, make a list kind of person, and sometimes you have been so goal oriented that you have turned off the tower. At that point, you cannot hear the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit, so you often miss one of the great gifts you got when you got Jesus - the perfect guidance of your Creator, who makes no mistakes. Try to become a better listener to the Holy Spirit and check in regularly through the day to see which way He wants to take you. Allow the Spirit to steer you into things and people you never planned. They might look like detours, but if the Spirit guides you in that direction, it's the right flight plan.
In Acts 16, Paul thought he was supposed to go to Asia Minor. That was his plan A. He waited, and the Lord actually wanted to take him to Europe. That was plan B, Paul thought, but it had been God's plan A all along. Paul understood that obedience requires flexibility. You have to stop and call that person the Lord leads you to call for some unknown reason. He might be leading you to write to someone, to hug a child, to spend time with someone you love or who needs you, to wait when you want to plunge ahead, or to go for it when you want to wait.
Practice seeking the Lord's prompting, and listening to and acting on that prompting. That is how you end up on course, living every day in the center of the will of God. If you want the safest route to the best destination, keep your headset on from takeoff to landing every day. Stay in touch with the tower!