This is an amazing phrase used in spoken English. If you “shoot yourself in the foot” it means that you accidentally do something that is negative for you.To help you remember phrases, it’s very helpful to understand the original meaning of the phrase.
Imagine you owned a gun and you weren’t being careful with it. You might be playing around with the gun and you accidentally shoot yourself in the foot. Then you need to go to the hospital to fix your foot and you probably won’t be able to walk for about 6 months. (This would obviously be a stupid thing to do!) Well… Now think about how this phrase might be applied (used) in real spoken English. If you “shoot yourself in the foot” it means you did something to yourself that will hurt you, not help you.
Here is a perfect example of shooting yourself in the foot: Imagine you have an important job interview tomorrow. Now imagine you went 15 minutes late to the interview and you also wore dirty clothes for no reason.
This would clearly make your chances of getting the job much lower and would be a very stupid thing to do to yourself. That would be called, “shooting yourself in the foot”
Also… If you don’t learn English at a high level, you are also “shooting yourself in the foot” because you are limiting your opportunities at work and in many areas of life. You might not realize how negative this is, but people with better English have MUCH better lives. I hope this gives you some extra motivation to study now! Keep going!