Julie a 66-year-old married woman retired with her husband 5 years ago to the Island where her father and her sister were living. She sees them in a caring capacity on a regular basis. Her grown up children and grandchildren live on the mainland. Since retirement Julie has taken up part-time voluntary work in a charity shop. Julie’s identity is closely linked to helping and supporting other people. Constructive and reflexive engagement occurred over time rather than immediately. Preference elicitation and linking those preferences to relevant network members formed an aspect of the process of reconstructing new alternatives. At T2, Julie demonstrated the navigation of her network and negotiated relationships within it in order to access preferred activities identifying collective activities with acquaintances which she attributed to sustaining her motivation. Some activities were incorporated into maintaining a supportive role towards her father and sister. Her father’s nursing home was opposite a hotel with a swimming pool open to the public all day with more flexible availability than the local leisure centre. This provided Julie with an opportunity to combine visiting her father with her preferred form of regular exercise. Similarly, Julie used to go line-dancing with a friend, but had to give it up when the friend stopped going, as she relied on her friend’s husband for transport. Julie identified a new line-dancing class located near to where her sister lives with weekly visits to support her sister. In addition, Julie negotiated a way to continue attending Slimming World classes when the friend she usually went with stopped attending. When Julie heard that her neighbour’s sister attended a class closer to home, she asked whether she could go with her on the bus. The passage of time allows Julie to review the value of her role in the local Diabetes Support Group, which was onerous and no longer fulfilled her needs. Having an administrative role has kept Julie engaged in the support group for longer than average, as the role of health condition support groups are often only important for a limited length and a specific point in time. Julie decided it was time to step down from her position on the committee which in turn freed up time to increase her weekly voluntary hours in the charity shop.