Reality is self-created.

Feeling it was wrong to attend college while other young men were fighting in Vietnam, James Meade voluntarily joined the Army.

After completing helicopter flight school, then Warrant Officer 1 shipped to Vietnam.  He was 19 years old.

He soon faced a baptism of fire and was shot down three times in three months. On May 8, 1967, Meade's Huey helicopter was shot down a final time; a rotor blade crushed his skull and all but ended his life.

Unconscious for 10 weeks, his traumatic brain injury was so severe that he had no memory of who, what or where he was.

Meade faced years of work to relearn everything he once knew. He eventually came to the conclusion that he would only overcome his limitations - to conquer his disability - by making his own recovery a reality.

According to www.census.gov, there are about 3.8 million veterans in the United States with a service-connected disability. Meade is one such veteran, and today he is a motivational speaker and the CEO of the Portland, Oregon-based Dr. James Meade, Jr. Foundation.

He has recently written Making Your Own Reality: A Survival Story to share his belief that everyone, especially those with a disability, has the ability to make his or her dreams a reality.

"I attempt to stress with all my clients that if you don't make yourself better, it is not going to happen," Meade said in a recently published interview. "No therapist or doctor or anyone is going to do it for you."

Making Your Own Reality: A Survival Story stresses that nothing worthwhile is impossible if an individual is willing to work and ask for help.

"In so many ways, living is confusing, frightening, thrilling and anything else you want to call it," Meade wrote in an email. "The world deserves that we do our very best in our efforts to give our country the best we possibly can."

Meade has worked with brain-injured individuals and their families around the world.  Much of what he writes about in his book describes what he has experienced and seen and how it's changed his own life and the lives of others.

Meade wrote the book at age 65, which allows him to include a spectrum of wisdom gained through his ordeal of re-creating his reality.

"We need to believe in ourselves and make every effort we can to share with the world what we believe God would want us to do," continued Meade.

Making Your Own Reality: A Survival Story is published by WestBow Press and sells for $33.95.  All proceeds from the book's sales go to support brain-injury organizations.