This study examines the role of personal demands in the health-impairment process of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory. Personal demands, such as workaholism, self-criticism, and awfulizing, are internal pressures and maladaptive striving. Job demands such as cognitive, quantitative, and learning demands mediate the association between personal demands and emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between job demands and job performance, as measured at both the task and contextual levels. Data from 387 software developers support the serial mediation model, finding that high personal demands increase job demands, which in turn lead to emotional exhaustion. This emotional exhaustion negatively impacts performance. The results demonstrate that job demands and emotional exhaustion mediate the relationship between personal demands and performance in a unique sequence. This study extends JD-R theory by establishing the link between internal pressures and work strain, with implications for personal and organizational management.