Immediately go read the Theory of Poker by Sklansky. Re-read it. Then read the parts you did not understand once again. This is a fundamental concept that you need to understand to have any hope of consistently making correct decisions. In limit, pot odds dictate when it is correct to chase and when a check-raise can give incorrect odds for others to chase, among other things.

I won't pretend to be able to explain pot odds, implied odds, and reverse implied odds and how they apply to no-limit to allow you to put maximum pressure on your opponent with a correctly sized bet, or whether to chase yourself. I just try to come close when I play in the odd tournament or two.

Go read Sklansky. If you want to be succesful at our game, you need to get over your aversion to numbers.

Ok I'll make this as simple as possible. Say you start with AKd you raise 25 bb's, you and villian start with 100bb's. You get called, flop is [10d] . You bet 25 bb's and the villian goes all in. There is now 150 BB's in the pot and you have to cal 50 more BB's. You are now getting 3:1 on your call. Now the question is what are you up against. So now assume you dont think your over cards are live. You have 9 outs to win so you are about a 2:1 underdog. So anytime your pot odds are better than your odds in the hand it is a +ev call.