Two victories:
1. Victory over racial bigotry. It took a heap of good and bad examples, growing desire to follow the good and not follow the bad, hundreds of usually seemingly unrelated life experiences not entered into by my own will or choice, the loss of television (especially local news) for about 6 years--again not by choice but by acquiescence, and events in the world and the culture all through my life (large and small) that had impact on me, and myriad choices, tests of those choices, and tests by and from others, humility and humiliations--all this over the course of decades.
2. Overnight (relatively speaking) the change in my "language" from a near constant stream of profanity and invective to the absence of that and the growing presence of "blessing", whether that was for my 'circumstances' (all of God) or for all those pesky other people in the world who I knew were also in His hands.
I can't say that there aren't those to whom "the salvation of all" and the "absolute sovereignty of God" are little more than doctrinal curiosities. But that wasn't what happened to me. Though I am far from perfect, SIMPLY BELIEVING was what started the work in me which He has promised to continue. And so far, He has.
Now then: Of those two, which was "God working in me to will and to do His good pleasure"? One took decades and untold thousands of twists and turns, and required my participation since it all was happening to ME. The other took a few hours at most and I didn't know that it had happened until it was all over and I looked back. One came about after much struggle. The other fell in my lap. Both were "overcoming" and could not, as it is axiomatic, have come about without what preceded them.
Rick, I know what you mean when you say that "do good" is often accompanied by someone wanting to tell you just HOW. We all came from that, and it is perfectly understandable to be wary. In my view, that TOO is overcoming...and in NO SMALL WAY.