You are right. You need to be fired up, but in a good way- not in a bad way. In the story up above, from what I understood, he saw a miracle. So he wanted to get closer to Hashem.
Where was the miracle in the fire? People are taking on kabalos to shut up their guilty feelings and to do something in their zechus. But this is the WRONG way! Many other things you can do in the zechus besides kabalos.
Ture, you need to be fired up. Hey, we all know a mussar shmooze doesn’ fire you up. You need to fire YOURSELF up, the shmooz may or may not start the flame, but you gotta keep it burning.
You have to be in a good place to take on a kabalah, afterwords when it fades, you just feel even worse. I beleive last weeks Mishpacha TeenPages also addressed this.
I know there is a source for this and it makes sense. Ask around.