In the article “Physical activity and behaviour change: the role of distributed motivation” we reframed motivation as a property not just of the individual, but of systems that include social interaction and networked relations. This paper illustrates how network-aware thinking can shift conceptual foundations: rather than asking “how do we motivate the person?”, we ask “what network of ties, organisational structures, technologies, social interactions enable or disable motivation?” From a methods point of view, this work demonstrates how social network methods can deepen theoretical insight.