In spite of himself.

[Silverobama]

Hi,

What does this sentence mean?

He did it in spite of himself.

Thanks a lot

[Barb_D]

Without context (ahem!):
Something about him would have made it unlikely he would succeed, but he did.

[Silverobama]

I am sorry, Barb.

The sentence was just like this when I put it down, it was a few years ago. Now I'm going over my notes. I see it then I ask.

Anyway, let me provide a context:

Although he thought it was impossible to conquer the fear in his heart, he did it in spite of himself.

Is my new sentence idiomatic in AE? If so, I will put it down.

[Barb_D]

Well... not so much.

Let's say I'm really bad whenever there's anything wrong with my computer. But I try anyway. And I think I'm supposed to do Thing A. But I'm so bad, I actually do Thing B. And then it turns out that Thing B was what I really needed to do to fix it. So in that case, I fixed it, in spite of myself.

[Silverobama]

So when using this expression, we emphasize luck?

[Barb_D]

I hadn't thought about it that way, but we often do, I think.

[Silverobama]

Thanks a lot