get ahead of oneself

present singular third person gets ahead of oneself · participle present getting ahead of oneself · past got ahead of oneself · UK participle past got ahead of oneself · US participle past gotten ahead of oneself

1. idiomaticTo focus excessively on one's plans or on prospective future events without paying adequate attention to the present.

   "I felt like she plays just one shot at a time. She never gets ahead of herself."

   1998 July 28, Ira Berkow, “GOLF: Raised To Be A Champion; Father's Firm Push Sent Pak To the Top of Women's Golf”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 Jul 2012

   2 more examples

   Montgomerie suspected he was getting ahead of himself. "I think I am thinking about next week too much," he said.

   1997 July 12, Andy Farrell, “Sport: Fulke's 12 birdies fail to fell Lehman”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 25 Jul 2012

   The eager American warriors were getting ahead of themselves. The Allies had neither the troops nor the landing craft needed to carry out Operation Sledgehammer or Roundup or the other code-named plans.

   2001 June 24, Bruce W. Nelan, “Cover/D-Day”, in Time

2. idiomaticTo develop an opinion based on insufficient information or to take action prematurely.

   Mother sometimes got ahead of herself and didn't think things through.

   2011, Ann Evans, Dream Baby, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Channel 4 News's Samira Ahmed rather got ahead of herself when she told viewers on Saturday afternoon that Liverpool had beaten Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final-even thought it was still 90 minutes away from kick-off.

   2006 April 28, “Media Monkey: Channel 4's crystal ball”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 25 Jul 2012

   “Frankly,” he said in a moment, “I think the chief constable has got ahead of himself on this one. There's no real evidence the man was murdered.”

   2007, Cassandra Chan, Village Affairs, →ISBN, page 18

3. idiomaticTo speak or write in a manner in which one makes points out of logical or chronological sequence.

   She talked so excitedly that she got ahead of herself and looked bewildered and cried out, "What was I saying?"

   1951, Tennessee Williams, “The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and Coffin”, in John Updike, Katrina Kennison, editors, The Best American Short Stories of the Century, published 2000, →ISBN, page 316

   2 more examples

   I think he just got ahead of himself in telling first of the arrest of John, then jumped back to the earlier baptism of Jesus.

   2005, Christopher B. Sanford, Matthew: Christian Rabbi, →ISBN, page 64

   People often interrupt themselves mid-sentence. Why? Perhaps they're excited over something and get ahead of themselves as they speak.

   2011, Laura Schellhardt, Screenwriting for Dummies, →ISBN, page 151