I'm surprised no one has mentioned practice - at safe altitude - in your individual aircraft as a means of determining aircraft performance, response, perspective, glide rate (the real picture, not just theory from the PoH) under various wind and weather conditions.
To my mind this is essential as a pre-requisite to any plans of what you can or cannot do (and at what height).
I've seen turnbacks attempted by very experienced pilots who failed and ended up in hospital or the graveyeard. I've also had a safe altitude failure myself where I was able to complete a tight but calm circuit back to the field. But only because I had practiced and knew what to expect in terms of performance.