No master or expert here but sure, that's a well known principle of chess often known by the fancy name prophylaxis or prophylactic thinking. Failure to do so is sometimes derided as "tunnel vision" and NM Heisman uses the terms "hope chess" and "hand waving" to describe it. Hope chess is when you make a move that advances your plan without thoroughly considering your opponent's possible responses. Hand waving is when you play according to principle but without actually bothering to calculate. Let me get you a link to his site where ten years of monthly award winning articles await.
http://danheisman.home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm
Before you read this forum, please note that I am simply a late beginning chess player or novice at this game. I plan to play in chess tournaments later on when I feel like I'm good enough to compete. On that note, I have been reading articles on secrets of grandmaster/master thinking. To make the long story short, these great players think more about their opponents moves than their own using a technique called "falsification". This thinking process is used when they are given a position and come up with theories or canidate moves that can help mantain equality or improve positions. However, most tournament or novice players like me also try to do the same. But what differs is that we tend to play canidate moves that support our plans without thinking about the best possible moves our opponent can make in response to our canidate moves. Grandmasters or masters on the otherhand tend to find moves that stop their positional plans and try to falsify their theories or canidate moves. So what I got from this is that when I try to find possible canidate moves to a position I am playing in, I must focus more on the best moves my opponent makes to my canidate moves more than my actual plan. If that makes sense to anyone reading this. So I was wondering if this way of thinking sounds familiar to any chess masters or experts out there hopefully reading this forum. If you can concur this scientific study, please let me know. Because I would also try to the best of my ability to try to think like this in most games I play in hopefully improving my game to another level.