Clarification on early MTT strategy

I have a hard time gathering chips early in a tournament. It seems at best, if I am still in with 1/5 the remaining field, I may have at best, an average stack. Usually though, I'm pretty shortstacked.

I want to develop a get-chips-or-bust-early attitude but am having trouble executing. I know its hard to generalize, but how are some ways of doing this. Risks (never sure if the 'risk' I'm taking is foolish or not)? Catch someone with AK who missed their flop? Limp with cheap blinds? All these seem fine until its actually tournament time, then I have trouble. Is there any insight that I am missing? Thanks and I'll be back in about 3 hours.