Justin Legg is a retired Navy SEAL Officer. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2000 with a B.S. in Systems Engineering. He was a member of Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL Training (BUD/S) Class 234 and became a plank owner (founding member) of SEAL Team SEVEN. While with SEAL Team SEVEN he deployed to the Middle East twice and participated in combat operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After returning from Iraq, he transferred to Special Boat Team TWENTY-TWO in Mississippi, where he served as a Task Unit Commander and the Team Training Officer. In early 2006 Justin was diagnosed with a severe form of Leukemia. Over the next 10 years Justin endured over 75 treatments of chemotherapy and radiation, a bone marrow stem cell transplant, an immune disorder respiratory failure, a double-lung transplant. | While he was going through his medical adventures, LCDR Legg fought to stay on active duty performing various duties at Naval Special Warfare Group TWO and FOUR, SEAL Team TWO, and even rehabilitated himself well enough to become an operational SEAL Platoon Commander at SEAL Team EIGHT for a short while in between the transplants. Justin medically retired from the Navy in 2012. Justin became the first, and still the only, double lung-transplantee in the world to climb Denali in Alaska. Justin completed his master’s degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington D.C. H presently works as a Renewable Energy consultant for the Navy’s Resilient Energy Program.
3:44 Putting aside you know, the real world factors of Well, the thing will be rotten before I ever get anywhere near close to it. But if you could do it, without the elephant rotting away, you got to do it one bite at a time. It's gonna take you a long time. You don't worry about the size of the elephant or how long it's going to take you to eat it. You just start eating, some parts are going to be good.
6:06 Well, I actually I'm still here. So I think I have pretty good luck. And then I've had the good luck of getting through this, because this prepared me for the next thing. And I've had the good luck of getting through that because it prepared me for the next thing.
14:33 Trying to keep humor in the situation really helps. You know, there's been plenty of studies that talk about levity actually helping your health. Yes. So yes, laughter actually does produce your measurable health benefits. Not only physical health but mental health. I think having mental health oftentimes When you're in dire straits, where your physical health is failing, your mental health will pull you through the day.
21:28 in this story of the Zen Master, this teaches you to look at the future for the possibilities that may come regardless of what you do. But it also teaches you to try your best to influence the possibilities of what may come and not judge what the future may hold, based off of today's predictions.
37:50 I think the biggest thing is don't ever let somebody else tell you that your goal is wrong or unimportant. Your goal is your goal that that's all that matters to you.
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