Inner development is needed to address some of our species biggest issues like warfare, racism, and addiction. To do this we must practice Right Effort to direct our attention and energy inward to affect the roots of these issues.
We have an innate amount of energy, an innate life-force, and the question is how will we use it?
The first aspect of Right Effort is simply the effort to be mindful, to be present with loving-awareness. This is the first and most central capacity of your Buddha nature, that it is possible to live in an awake way and not be lost as much as we are.