Examples of growth mindset or practice in fiction

Yes, I think groundhog day and similar stories ( Mother of Learning, Time Braid) give great examples of this- if you really want to drive this home to your system 1, I recommend the "split selves" and "second chances" techniques in this post to drive it home by imagining that YOU'RE actually in a looping fic.

Note that I don't think that it's necessarily bad to drive home an "Honor Harrington" type message where the hero is practicing a lot at skills they're already naturally gifted at - I think this is the most effective path to success, and you definitely don't want ot hammer in the meme of "even if I'm naturally really really bad at something, I can be the best through practice."

Lots of examples and extended discussion.

Naruto. Lots of wanting to be stronger, and training hard in order to become stronger, often as a response to frustration about not being strong enough yet. Tree climbing example.

There are probably many other examples of Japanese fiction with similar themes (Eliezer basically said as much), but Naruto is the one that I'm familiar with.

The Good American Witch by Peggy Bacon. The witch grants wishes, but always with an odd price-- for example, a girl who wants curly blonde hair has to give up her eyebrows. As a result, she gets eyebrows which match her hair. Towards the end of the book, a boy wants to become an artist. He's told the price is that his wish won't be fulfilled until after some large number of days. At the end of the book, he's become an artist, and only then realized that while he's been studying art, the requisite number of days have passed.

The Paladin by C. J. Cherryh-- as I recall, it has quite a lot about martial arts training.

Would the Harry Potter books count as an approximate match? Talent is important, but the characters also spend a lot of time on study and practice.

I found this quality in The Wind Rises - protagonist achieves greatness through single-minded dedication to his craft (airplane engineering), and sacrifice.

This was the first film I saw that seemed to glorify hard work and focus, rather than an inherent "quality of greatness". Greatness itself is explicitly divorced from the protagonist, who perceives his ultimate goal through a series of dreams. It never belongs to him, it is something he is always working towards.

It doesn't do exactly what you're looking for though, because it also casts doubt on the ultimate achievement, asking, "Was it really worth it?".

A few notes.

• Writing leveling up in an engaging way is hard. Groundhog Day is one classic example where it's done well, and is pure growing mindset and determination, no extra talent.

• I think in the Hunger Games it is implicitly assumed that she both has a gift for archery and had worked hard to develop it. I agree that her wins look mostly like luck or some behind-the-screen force.

• Indeed in the Honor Harrington series the brutal training schedule, while not often explicitly shown, is alluded to multiple times, and the explanation for the original villain remaining largely technically incompetent is rather contrived and hand-waved. I chalk that one to David Weber being completely incapable of writing non-cartoonish villains, ever.

• A big offender in the "all talent, little work" department is Ender's Game: Ender manages to beat a more experienced player 2 out of 3 without ever touching the game controls prior to the contest. Later on, he trains his troops, but he is already magically there himself. Though there is the bit where he levels up properly under Mazer Rackham.

• Brandon Sanderson's writings tend to be quite decent. The characters tend to put a lot of work into achieving their potential, but there is never a "growing mindset is all you need" premise, one always needs a healthy measure of talent to excel. Even geniuses with an obvious talent at least have to work hard at learning how to control it.

I think that great example of growth mindset is "Baby steps" anime and manga (http://mangafox.me/manga/baby_steps/). Boy become proffesional tennis player from scratch using deliberate practice and hard work.

I seem to remember that Karate Kid (at least the original one) matches fairly well.

Aubrey and Maturin series. Both are quite awesome from the start, yes, and suffer setbacks which wipe out the gains from hard work, and some things (naval for Maturin, 'landwards' for Aubrey) remain unlearnable; but their abilities to react to life's demands efficiently seems (to me) to grow over time.

Also, Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann. A kind of - antihero? - great from the start, trying desperately to fulfill his worth before his time runs out.

Avatar: The Last Airbender -- the TV series, not the movie. Arguably this is based on a series of revelations and unlocking latent powers, but the series is thick with depictions of practice throughout.

The scifi action flick Edge of Tomorrow might be a close-but-not-perfect example. Most of the movie is an extended training montage, with one (more or less the same as Groundhog Day) unique conceit.

The coming of age movie I Not Stupid is essentially about the distinction between a growth and fixed mindset, as played out against a backdrop of the highly competitive Singaporean education system.

Arguably Batman, when taken at face value. Due in part to sheer volume, there are probably a few story arcs from both Batman and Spider-Man comics that have elements of this. Not even mentioning the countless lesser known entities of super-hero comics that embody it, especially those with Charles Atlas superpowers.

A lot of fight sport fiction might get close, too.

I have an inkling that fiction in the near future featuring The Unchosen One will at least attempt more of this, or at least a Hollywood/Anime version of it.

It's beautifully lampshaded how bad training montages are in Team America.