The theological answer is that God doesn’t really have a step by step plan for the life of each person. Sure, there are ways he wants to bless you, and things he wants you to do that he’s put you in a position to do, but not a step by step plan. Example: Esther was in a position to have the king’s ear when he planned to kill all the Jews. Esther 4 says that the Jews will be saved with or without Esther helping, but God had chosen her and given her what she needed to save the Jews.

Also, on free will, the most important part of free will is the ability to choose to leave God. That’s what the tree of knowledge of good and evil is about. It’s not knowledge in our modern sense, a better description would be “the right to define good and evil”. So when Adam and Eve ate that fruit, they were basically saying “I don’t want God’s idea of what good and evil is, I want to do it myself”. I know that seems not so bad to our culture, but it’s basically saying “I know better than God, who knows everything”.