My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
And your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet,
And let all your ways be established.
Do not turn to the right or the left;
Remove your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:20-27 (NKJV).
Being intentional about the choices you make does not come naturally. By default, we expect that we can just do whatever we want and, compounding this, we also do a terrible job of considering all the actual possible outcomes from making a decision. It is so easy to come up with rationalizations as to why we should be able to do everything that we want, and this is why our solipsism bubble can be so hard to burst.
The "terrible twos" are not about children intending to be evil, but in teaching them that they are not God, that there are limits to their capacity, and that despite their parents having spent the prior years meeting their every need, that system of reliance won't continue on forever.
A big part of "growing up" is just learning how to be independent of your parents, how to provision for yourself, how to make sacrifices in your time preferences to enjoy a greater reward later instead of pursuing a smaller reward now.
The thing is, if you were God, or at least a god, of any sort, then your "power" would be greater than the laws of this reality, and you'd be able to overcome the limitations that humanity constantly runs up against. While you would not be free to do the illogical, like counting the corners on a circle, the reason why we can't just do whatever we want and "be fine" is because we are limited, finite, and we can very quickly place ourselves in circumstances beyond our ability to control.
We need to eat particular foods and in a particular quantity in order to best suit the predisposition of our digestive tract. No two people have the exact same digestive system, with all its bends and turns in the gut, and without all the same microorganisms or history of biological diversity, so while a particular diet may work for one person, it may not even work for a sibling of theirs.
We can't just eat whatever we want and not worry about the consequences because we don't have the power to override our bodily functions, the natural consequences of digestion, through conscious efforts. We are not masters over our own flesh, yet we are inclined to declare ourselves masters over anything else?
Solomon emphasizes time and again the same basic premise, and what that may be tiresome, it's important to realize that he, and in turn God, found the process of making decisions important. That there is significance and meaning behind what you do and why you do it, and to understand that significance and adjust your behavior before mortal consequences come into play.
This is a theme all throughout parenting. You want your child to avoid getting hurt, but there will be a time when their desire to touch the pan on the stove while you've turned your head will overcome them, they still don't understand "hot", and so they'll touch it and burn themselves.
Or perhaps it's about falling from some height. They're a good climber and despite their success, you constantly warn them about being careful. But there will be a time when their desire to climb higher, while they still don't understand "fall = ouchie", will overcome them and they'll get a bit too confident, go past their capacity, and fall.
Parents try to avoid these lessons, to instill the importance, the lesson, without having their child need to experience "the hard way". Commands, barked from across a room, to the effect of "don't touch that" or "stop please" as the parent tries to guide the learning of their child in a way which prevents injury or harm.
But the solipsism bubble can't be burst every time in this manner. The arrogance and hubris of the small child is in full bloom, and there's nothing you can do to change it, and they're convinced they are right and you are wrong. That the reasons you're considering in doing something, or not doing something, are ignorant to the child's perceptions, and so your advice need not be heeded.
Solomon thus keeps trying, keeps emphasizing, keeps explaining the dynamics of wisdom as a way of avoiding his child from having to learn the "hard way", of a way which does not include a path towards destruction, from scars that will never fully heal.
Think of this passage less as the vapid spouting of a wiseguy and instead from the perspective of a parent whose child is visibly tempted by unwise decisions. Pick up on the subtle pleading tones, the heart of Solomon that desires only the best, and the need to try and explain the same dynamic as many different ways as possible, hoping that perhaps the latest permutation of the phrasing will be what triggers understanding.
Pursuing wisdom with vigor and zeal will not disappointed, will not let one down, and will prevent the accumulation of excess baggage that comes with poor decisions, baggage that must then be carried throughout the remainder of temporal life. Free yourself by making the right choice in the first place, and never taking on the burdens you were never meant to carry.
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