Bite off more than (you) can chew

If you bite off more than you can chew, you take on more responsibilities than you can manage/ deal with. You are trying to do more than you can handle. You are attempting much more than you may be capable of doing.

1. Do you ever land up (arrive at a final point) in trouble because you are ambitious and commit to too many things at the same time? You may be biting off more than you can chew if you are not able to fulfill your commitments… or if you don’t have time for other important priorities. 

2.  Do you think the US Government is overextending itself financially (obligating itself beyond a limit) by being involved in other countries, to the point where the federal budget is allocating too much to defense, for example? Are they biting off more than they can chew, or is this spending well within their resources?

3. If I had to schedule English classes with everyone who contacted me, I would be biting off more than I could chew, because I only have 24 hours a day. I need to eat, sleep, watch TV series etc. I would be overextending myself… so I have to set a limit on how many hours I teach a day.

4. People will go to great lengths to break world records, and sometimes they lose their lives trying to achieve the seemingly impossible. When they go beyond their limits, they bite off more than they can chew, which is sometimes fatal, as in the case of Javad Palizbanian, an Iranian daredevil, who in 2005 attempted to leap over 22 buses on his motorcycle, but landed on the 13th bus, dying immediately.

5. Many restaurants that advertise with deal-of-the-day websites, such as “Groupon”, bite off more than they can chew, because with an unusually high influx of customers (due to the promotion), they are not able to keep up with (maintain) the usual quality of service - and many times this gives a bad first impression.