Quick answer
Holding onto instruction keeps you on the road of life; refusing correction walks you off it. Correction is navigation in this verse.
Read both lines
Both lines are travel lines: keep instruction the way you hold a map, and you are on the path; refuse correction and you go astray, and the Hebrew verb can also carry the sense of leading others astray with you, since nobody wanders entirely alone. The hinge word is correction, and Proverbs is realistic about why we refuse it: it stings, and it always arrives at the exact moment you were wrong. But correction here is not an insult; it is roadside assistance. Refusing it does not defend your dignity; it just extends your detour.
Related: Proverbs 12:1 · Proverbs 15:10
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.