This can't be overstated, I find that when building a homebrew world, I tend to fill it with all sorts of hooks and themes. What happens is my players jump around from one interesting locale to the next, but lack the drive of a "north star" goal as Sly puts it.

My first time DMing Curse of Strahd was a big learning experience; simply having the goal to kill Strahd from the get-go meant players started sessions with more focus and were more committed to their characters and the story.