Here is my own case in point: I build structures for my courses - outlines, plans, activities, ways of getting from here to there. Sure, these structures are fluid and (from the perspective of many of my students, I'm sure) fairly ambiguous. But they are there. Like an architect, then, I take pride in these structures. I fall in love with the buildings I build. I have good memories of what happened when other inhabitants populated those buildings.
Let me translate what I'm talking about in plain English: When I ask the class to rebuild the syllabus, I have to be ok with whatever is rebuilt, whatever is dropped, whatever ends up by becoming the new course. Inevitably, something is dropped that I was kind of fond of. I was fond of the vulnerability exercise and it was dropped. Now, I mourn its loss. Funny to say it that way, but there you have it.
I smile, however, when I think of my "mourning" the last semester I taught this course. That time, it was the grading I hated to see go away. I remember feeling a tad bewildered and nervous. Sure, people had talked about doing that since the very first time I had taught the class. Now they were actually doing it.
This time? This time the "grading" decision made no difference to me whatsoever. Go for it, guys. I trust you to do it wisely and do it well.
The moral of the story: Comfort with change is learned and gradual. Yesterday's adaptive challenges are mere technical problems today. We tackle them and move on.