get ahead of oneself

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get ahead of oneself

1. (idiomatic) To focus excessively on one's plans or on prospective future events without paying adequate attention to the present.
   • 1997 July 12, Andy Farrell, "Sport: Fulke's 12 birdies fail to fell Lehman ," The Independent (UK) (retrieved 25 July 2012):

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

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

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

   • 2001 June 24, Bruce W. Nelan, "Cover/D-Day," Time:

     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.

2. (idiomatic) To develop an opinion based on insufficient information or to take action prematurely.
   • 2006 April 28, "Media Monkey: Channel 4's crystal ball," The Guardian (UK) (retrieved 25 July 2012):

     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.

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

     “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.”

   • 2011, Ann Evans, Dream Baby, →ISBN, Google online preview:

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

3. (idiomatic) To speak or write in a manner in which one makes points out of logical or chronological sequence.
   • 1951, Tennessee Williams, "The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and Coffin" in The Best American Short Stories of the Century (2000, John Updike and Katrina Kennison editors), →ISBN, page 316:

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

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

     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.

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

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

• talk out of turn

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