Everything hallelujah: Making gratitude your habit.
Justin Bieber performing at Coachella 2026
It’s not a good look for a 42-year-old man to try too hard to look cool and current. It’s something I try to avoid. I don’t know if “cool” is even a word anymore.
This was on my mind when I had an idea to write my piece this week about Justin Bieber at Coachella.
Then I remembered that another Justin (Trudeau) was also there with Katy Perry, which means that Coachella is neither cool nor current. So I think I can get away with writing the piece.
A lot has been said about Bieber’s performance, and another thing I try to avoid is the jump-on-the-zeitgeisty-bandwagon style of content creation. So I’m not really going to write about the YouTube thing. Or whether his performance was lazy, or genius. There are plenty of posts landing on one of those two verdicts out there already (but for the record, I think it was genius, and said a lot about the kind of real, pared-down, community-feel experience people are looking for these days).
But I am even more interested in what certain aspects of the performance tell us about surviving difficult experiences in our lives. And specifically, in the role of gratitude.
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A few days ago I published my last in a series of downloadable resources, including one called Change Your Life in 10 Days.
It’s 30-odd pages of routines, habits, and practices designed to give you a bit of a reset. If that’s not something you feel like you need, then don’t worry. That just means I didn’t write it for you.
I think most people, however, are aware that it’s easy to fall into unhealthy habits and self-defeating routines in their day-to-day lives, and are vaguely committed to figuring out something to do about it. That’s what the guide is for. It’s a framework to resetting whatever it is you know needs resetting.
Your morning instagram habit. Your indiscipline when it comes to exercise. Your tendency to dwell on setbacks and failures. And the benefits of daily reflection, regular journalling, and - for me most importantly - habitual gratitude.
There’s a structure I offer, and it’s very simple. Two short lists. Firstly, three things you’d wish you had if you didn’t have them. And secondly, three specific things that went well in your day.
That’s it.
If you can’t find three of each, I promise you, you’re not looking hard enough. They’re there.
And that’s the power of gratitude. It’s the effort in finding what may not be obvious, because, if it was obvious, you wouldn’t need to remember that things aren’t so bad after all. You’d just know it already.
It’s the finding it that counts.
It’s the effort that’s counts.
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So where does Justin come in?
Well, love him or hate him, he’s a fascinating character. The cumulative effects of having spent well over half his life in the spotlight (he was discovered at age 13, and is now 32 years old) have been laid bare in a very public way. Scuffles with paparazzi. Arrests for street racing. Well-documented issues with anxiety, depression, prescription drug addiction, and other chronic illness. And some very real questions about some of his experiences as a young man in the music industry, and the abusive relationships that tend to exist around those situations.
So yes, while it’s true that he’s fabulously wealthy and privileged, it’s also true that he’s been through some stuff. He’s paid (and apparently continues to pay) a huge price for his fame and fortune.
I would probably have completely missed all the hype around his set at Coachella (I’m not exactly a follower) were it not for the fact that he performed his song Daisies which features one of my favourite artists right now, Mk.gee, on guitar. The algorithm obviously knows I like Mk.gee, because it naturally knows everything about me, so it suggested I watch. And after I did, I also ended up watching another song Biebs included in the set, Everything Hallelujah.
The Everything Hallelujah performance
Being a dinosaur, I’d never heard this track before. But the song - and the performance of it - kind of blew me away.
It’s as simple a chord progression as there is on guitar. Open C. Slide up two frets to Dadd4. Then a G. There’s a little run down to E minor then A minor at the end but apart from that, it’s literally the first three chords most people learn on the guitar.
So it’s extremely simple. As is the melody. The arrangement, too.
What makes it special is the lyrics (reproduced below, with Justin’s permission, including the chords for those who want to know. And actually Justin has no idea they’re here but I don’t think he’d mind, I’m being nice).
The core idea of the song is gratitude. The word hallelujah literally means “praise God”, derived from the Hebrew hallel (“praise”) and yah from Yahweh, meaning Lord. It is a cry of praise and gratitude (Bieber is a committed Christian).
And the magic is in the simplicity of the things he is thanking God for. His parents. His wife. His kids and his dogs and simple pleasures like taking a walk, and going swimming. Even brushing his teeth (likely a reference to the fact that when you’re battling depression, something like that can feel like a victory).
And I think we should all live like that. In gratitude for the simple things. It seems to me, if we were able to truly and fully embrace the idea, it would essentially be impossible to be unhappy. I have plenty of stories from friends and people in my community which prove the point, but they’re for another time.
For now, here are those lyrics. Go all the way to the end. Then go listen to the song, if you haven’t heard it. It might just make you a Belieber.
Mom and Dad, hallelujah
Hailey, babe, hallelujah
Baby Jack, hallelujah
Oscar, Piggy, hallelujah
Brand new day, hallelujah
Brush my teeth, hallelujah
Take a swim, hallelujah
Everything hallelujah
Go outside, hallelujah
It’s beautiful, hallelujah
It’s rainin’ hallelujah
Breathe the air, hallelujah
I’m singin’ like hallelujah
Dancin’ like hallelujah
Everything hallelujah
Read it again. Add your own hallelujahs.
Because none of this is new. You’ve heard about the power of gratitude before.
But if you’re fully honest with yourself, can you truly say you have ever really practiced it?
This is your reminder to try.
I’d love to hear what you find.