The peaceful transfer of office requires someone to treat losing as an instruction rather than a mistake to erase.

Handing over power requires treating a loss as an instruction rather than as an error to be corrected. That is an unnatural act, and everything rests on it: the whole arrangement continues only because someone accepts a result they believe to be wrong. Institutions survive on that one act of restraint.

The personal version is smaller and still difficult. Accepting a group decision you argued against, honouring a rule that went against you, letting a vote stand. Notice how quickly the mind reaches for reasons the process was flawed. Sometimes it was; more often the discomfort is simply what losing feels like, and accepting it well is what makes the next decision possible.