Mr. Cloutier has taught me nothing about gambling. Can you help out?

[DawnToDusk]

So I have been really trying to improve my tournament game. I have this problem where I play MTT online and get towards the end of the 2nd hour and beginning of the 3rd hour. I am just to low in chips. It seems like I am playing not to lose, but thats what I do a lot of the times. I finish outside of the money (albeit very close) most the times. The times I do get the money its very little. So I have analyzed my game and have come to the conclusion that I play too solid of a game. I just don't have that gamble.

Now I understand my relative chip stack to the size of the blinds, position, and all that other good stuff that you take into account when playing a tourney, but still don't have that gamble. I have been rereading some books I first started to read when I was new to poker (specificly Championship NL and PL Hold'em as well as Championship Hold'em tournament Hands) and have found that those books suggest playing a tighter more solid game. But thats not getting me anywhere.

So I am looking for your help. Can you kind of help define/describe what gambling is. I have some sort of idea and I hear authors/pros/everyone but me talk about it, but I just have no idea what it means really. Does that mean calling a lot of flops with marginal hands and trying to get lucky? Limping in a lot? What exactly is gambling. If you can kind of point me in the right direction I can learn the rest. I have a big tourney coming up on Saturday (200K Guarantee on PP) and want to win it. I am not worried about placing or bubbling or coming dead last. My goal is to win it and I need some of that "gamble" to do so. So please point me in the right direction.

Thanks