How to be aggressive but still survive ????

[BingBangBoom]

I am a winning cash player, but am still relatively new to tourney play. I have gone deep in a few 20 to 30 dollar MTTs, and had some firsts in the 180 person tourneys on stars, so im not completely clueless. I have been struggling lately getting deep in tourneys, and I believe it is due to my mid tourney play. I tend to be able to build a stack early in a tournament without much problem, but in the mid stages of the tourney I tend to get comfortable with my stack size especially in the orange/green zone, and I think tend to tighten up too much. I guess what im wondering is what to do when a flop bet and cbet would pretty much cripple my stack if its met with resistance. Usually this is an issue if I have 10-20 bb and dont feel shoving is my best choice, but need to be playing pots to accumulate chips.) Also I see players like annette, playing pairs and AJ+ super agressively in the mid-late stages of tourneys, and see them get into alot of races. I am confused on how often to accept races in situations like restealing or 3 bettin in position with 66-88 and A-j+ hands to unknowns. I know this is vague, but I am doing my best to put my problem into words. Sorry if this has been covered in other posts, but I have searched and havent found advice that directly relates to this problem. Any input is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.