Questions to Help the GM Make a Better Game

I have this reoccurring issue in my campaigns where I encourage my players to come up with goals of their own for them to pursue and let me know so I can build the groundwork for them. One of two things inevitably happens: I can't figure out how to lay the groundwork to let them pursue those dreams without shoehorning them into a path or the players come up with a goal that they are luke warm about pursuing then get distracted by all the crazy stuff going on. By the time I realize the issue is happening, efforts to fix it can make things worse if done haphazardly. 

The important part is to respect player autonomy and not create questions with no room for interpretation. "Who do you hate?" for example doesn't leave open a possibility for not hating, it forces a player to decide that. "Who do you feel strong about?" would be a better way to frame that question as it gives the player the freedom to decide what that feeling is. I'm sure it could be argued that maybe they don't have any strong feelings about anyone but themselves. I'd respond to that with a firm "get the fuck outta here with that lone wolf nonsense" that sorta character isn't interesting to me and so I'm okay with a question that at most prevents lone wolf characters.

Here's my running lists so far:

    The Character Questions

• What made your character leave their previous place in life?
• Who do you have the strongest connection with (in the group or outside it)?
• What's one thing your character believes in and would fight for?

    The Group Questions

• What made your character align with this group?
• What keeps your character with this group?
• What is one goal your character has that he needs help with and why?

    The Player Questions

• What is one goal you as a player have for your character?
• How do you want to go about achieving that goal?
• What do you hope to get out of the pursuit of that goal game-wise?

My aim was to keep them generic so it could be something I could use in multiple campaigns, but to still provide enough player input to keep the GM work I do focused on things that will keep them excited for the game.

The real trick will be to do something with the responses. I was thinking of creating Apocalypse World Second Edition inspired Threat Map of sorts for each character and the group overall as a means of following up on some of these plot threads a player would generate from that. I could have a quick place to spot their story elements and NPCs location in relation to them currently. I guess the only thing left is to try it out.