Matthew McConaughey says that being isolated made him socially awkward but allowed him to enjoy family time

• Matthew McConaughey spoke on the "Hello Monday" podcast about the positives of the pandemic for him.
• McConaughey said he'd been a bit socially awkward returning to events and gatherings.
• He said he hoped to be able to stay as present as he has been with his family after the pandemic.

Matthew McConaughey has big plans, like maybe getting involved in teaching, storytelling, or politics. But for now his focus is on his family, including his kids: Levi, 13, Vida, 11, and Livingston, 7.

"I want to be more me. I want to invest my time and energy in things that feed my true self more. And if they do that, they're going to feed my family more, and I believe if they do that, they're going to feed more people," McConaughey said on LinkedIn's "Hello Monday" podcast.

"I believe I'm being called into a leadership role," he added. "But where I know I need to start is right here in my household."

The pandemic had a silver lining for McConaughey

Like many parents, McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves, spent more time with their kids in the past year because of the pandemic. He said the time together led him to look at his priorities and how he had balanced his life, adding that the reexamination was a positive of the pandemic.

"I tried to really look at those upsides and go: We were forced into this. We were all forced to take more inventory in ourselves and who the hell, what the hell mattered to us," he said.

With fewer travel obligations and more opportunities to work remotely, McConaughey was able to focus on parenting, and he said he hoped the "new normal" would allow him to continue that. Just the ability to do a podcast remotely, he said, gives him more time for his top priority: his kids.

He's teaching his kids to have hard conversations in person

As his kids enter their teenage years, McConaughey is trying to instill in them the value of in-person conversations, he said.

His son Levi once mentioned having a tough talk with a friend over the phone, but McConaughey told him to wait until they could talk face-to-face, he said.

"I'm like, 'No, no, no, this is a conversation that you need to have in person,'" he said. "I could see he was nervous. I was like, 'Good. You'll feel like a larger person. No matter what her response is, you'll feel greater about yourself. Plus it's a great habit.'"

In his personal and professional life, McConaughey said, he tries to opt for an in-person conversation "rather than the easy no-show or the easy text."

McConaughey said he was socially awkward coming out of quarantine

McConaughey said that like many people - especially parents who have spent most of their time with their kids over the past year - he felt strange when he was able to start socializing again.

As we return to normal life, we're all going to have to be patient with one another, McConaughey said.

"Everyone needs a little bit of amnesty right now," he said. "Everyone's going to be awkward coming out. So just know that everyone's got that, and that can give you a little bit of relaxation, to know that everybody's in the particular same boat."