The Question Is Not X, But Y

When establishing one's priorities for action or analyzing something for its salient points, often the statement comes out that "It isn't a question of (the extraneous points), but rather (the salient point)".  Here's an example...

I'm taking a class at my local church.  It meets weekly, and each week a written assignment that involves answering questions about the previous week's lesson is due.  We're on Lesson 11 and the assignment is due tomorrow before class. Depending on how busy I am during the week, I'm either on pace with completing my assignment or behind.  This week I was behind, and had to invoke the "question is not" principle to getting the assignment completed and turned in: "The question is not how deep and significant my answers are for this assignment, but rather whether I can crank it out and turn it in on time."  Once asked, the answer to it is obvious and self-contained.  Just do the blasted assignment, turn it in, and move on to the next lesson!  So having established my priority, I did just that...and amazingly, while working in this mental framework I was able to come up with some pretty good answers, if I do say so.

I think that cranking out a product is the often the issue that needs to be addressed instead of insisting on perfection, for time is a factor in a lot of things that people often tend to ignore when appraising how best to approach them.  But also, once the question of what one's priority or focus should be has been ascertained, that question, within its new context, can shift as well.   As a matter of fact, sorting out priorities of emphasis is a crucial mental process that we need to be habitually adept at and consistently apply in a practical sense.