So today, I'm going to talk about how our mindsets matter

in virtually every facet of our lives.

But I want to begin by telling a story about a group of researchers in Italy.

Dr. Fabrizio Benedetti and his colleagues

studied a group of patients undergoing thoracic surgery.

What you should know about thoracic surgery

is that it's a very invasive procedure.

Patients are put under anesthesia while the surgeons make major incisions

into the muscles of the sides and the back

in order to gain access to their hearts and to their lungs.

Now, about an hour after the anesthesia fades away,

the pain starts to set in.

Fortunately, patients are given strong doses of morphine sulfate,

a powerful painkiller.

This is routine treatment for thoracic surgery,

but Dr. Benedetti and his colleagues made a few subtle tweaks:

half of the patients were given the dose of morphine

by a doctor at their bedside;

the other half was given the exact same dose of morphine,

but it was administered into their IV by a pre-programmed pump.

You would think that both of these groups of patients

would experience the same relief,

but this was not the case.

The group that received the morphine by the doctor

reported significant reductions in their pain levels.

The other group -

the group who received the same exact amount of morphine

but wasn't aware of it -

they didn't seem to experience the same benefit.

So Dr. Benedetti and his colleagues didn't stop there.

They used the same procedure

to test the effectiveness of other treatments -

treatments for anxiety,

treatments for Parkinson's disease, treatments for hypertension.

What they found was remarkable and consistent.

When the patients were aware of the treatment

and expected to receive the benefit,

the treatment was highly effective.

But when they weren't,