Imagine a wilderness, with paths scattered throughout. A traveller naturally falls into these paths, as they offer an easier passage through the punishing country. His passage wears the paths even more, making them even better defined. Gradually these paths become major thoroughfares.
This is a model for the human mind, with the paths being our habitual deluded patterns of thinking. As a forestry student our dictum was: "Off the road and into the bush!" We didn't want to be "led down the garden path". Spiritual growth too, demands that we abandon false brain-pathways, and start out anew, striving headlong into the wild and untamed country. After many years of effort, a new way will take shape - the highway to Enlightenment.
So, after much work, you may have at last found the highway to God - then congratulations - but this is only the beginning! Sticking to the main road is easy, but we love to be sidetracked. The old, familiar routes take time to grow-over, and until they do, the tendency is to fall into them again. And each time you re-tread an old way, it is refreshed, and becomes all the more attractive to travellers like yourself.