Fight or Flight

What is your first response to a threat to a major piece?  Me I always look first to how to use my position (and the presumably forthcoming sacrifice) to gain a tempo.  When I probably should be searching for a safe square to move my Queen to my first reaction is always to see what the sac will gain me.  It's visceral.  I can't seem to stop.  I know it's probably bad form and in all likelyhood is a contributing factor in why I find myself quagmired in the <1400 set.  What's your formula?

Does anybody else know which grandmaster follows this thought process?

"First, how to sac my queen, then rook, then bishop, then knight, then pawns."

^the magician from riga?