I never surrender when I am under the mistaken impression that I am winning. When everything is going my way, I am a happy camper. The true test of any spiritual principle is when things do not go the way I think they should and I can't seem to keep all the ducks in a row. One solution is to shoot the ducks, but then I just have a bunch of dead stinky ducks. It seems far better to let the ducks be ducks in whatever manner they deem appropriate and get over myself.
Surrender means knowing when I am NOT winning. It means coming to the end of me. When I come to the end of me, then I find true empowerment in my creator who already created the ducks just like he wanted them.